THE HEALIN< 
OF SOULS 

T OUIS ALBERT BANKS 



*4fct -•v 



C?^ 





Class BVyfll 

Book - 3 2.U- 

Copight^°_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



C|je Healing of ^oub 

n &mz$ of 

3Ble\Jt\ial Sermons 



&ek ILoute albert 315antt0, a>«a>* 

2Cutfror of 
'Ube Oreat Saints of tbe Bible." "Cbrist ant> Ibis ffdents," etc. 




Beta gorft: ©aton £ JHains 
Cincinnati: 3fenninfffii & fljpe 



e 



% <\ 



of\ 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Cones Reowved 

OCT. 22 1902 

Cnpvwawr wrrav 

jOLftsa ^ XXa Ho. 

copy a 



£3 






Copyright by 

EATON & MAINS. 

1902. 



To My Friend 

the 

Rev. WILLIS P. ODELL, D.D. 

this volume 

is affectionately dedicated 



THE AUTHOR'S GREETING 



The sermons contained in this book were all 
preached in Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, 
New York City, in a series of revival meetings held 
during the month of January, 1902. The themes 
had been selected long before, and illustrations and 
references gathered during several months previous, 
but each sermon was finally fused in the midst of 
the campaign, while the blood was hot and the 
nerves tense with that greatest of all spiritual ex- 
citements which the true preacher ever knows. 

Each of these sermons has had set upon it the 
approbation of the Holy Spirit in the conversion of 
souls. Night by night, throughout the entire 
month, the divine benediction so rested on the 
earnest proclamation of these simple Gospel mes- 
sages that some three hundred souls were persuaded 
during the month to confess Christ as their personal 
Saviour. 

The sermons are printed practically as they were 
delivered, with the hope that wherever they go they 
will carry to readers, and especially to preachers of 
the Gospel, something of inspiration and sugges- 



6 THE AUTHOR'S GREETING 

tion and illustrative help that will strengthen the 
evangelistic power of every man or woman into 
whose hands they may come. Thus hoping that the 
few hundreds of souls won on the personal delivery 
of these sermons may be multiplied into thousands 
through the printed page, they go forth followed 
by the author's tender and devoted prayer. 

Louis Albert Banks. 
New York City, June 18, 1902. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

I. Jesus the Sinners' Saviour. , 9 

II. The Light that Condemns 21 

III. Treasures that Cannot be Stolen 30 

IY. The Poisoned Spring 40 

V. Not a Patch, but a New Suit 52 

VI. The Great Physician 62 

VII. Good Cheer for the Sinner 72 

VIII. The Greatest Question of Exchange 82 

IX. The Yoke that Brings Rest 90 

X. The God within Reach 101 

XL The Cast of the Net 110 

XII. The House-Cleaning of the Soul. 120 

XIII. The Comforter of Souls 131 

XIV. Loosing a Soul from Bondage 139 

XV. The Best Choice 148 

XVI. Judging Ourselves 157 

XVII. Witnesses and Testimony 165 

XVIII. The Divine Christ 174 

XIX. The Great Ransom 184 

XX. A Sorrow that Worketh Joy 194 

XXL The New Childhood 203 

XXII. The Lust for Things 212 

XXIII. Near Yet Outside 221 

XXIV. The True Test of Love '. 230 

XXV. Plucking Out and Cutting Off 239 

XXVI. The Duty of Confessing Christ 248 

XXVII. The Man with a Bad Eye 258 

XXVIII. The Greatest Thief 266 

XXIX. Christ's Business in Heaven 274 

XXX. The Unpardonable Sin 283 

XXXI. The Day of Judgment 292 



THE 

HEALING OF SOULS 



JESUS THE SINNER'S SAVIOUR 

Thou shalt call his name Jesus : for he shall save his people from 
their sins.— Matthew i, 21. 

Sin is the horror and the nightmare of the world. 
It is sin which lays a withering blight on the joys 
of a home and leaves them blackened with the cruel 
touch of hell. It is sin which lays its despoiling 
hand on fair youth and thwarts all its promise 
of noble manhood or holy womanhood. It is sin 
which has filled the cities with corruption and 
made in them, here and there, deadly swamps and 
treacherous quicksands, where men and women sink 
down into despair every day in the year. It is sin 
which has covered the earth with wars and cru- 
elty. And it is because Jesus Christ comes to the 
world, daring to deal with sin, to attack sin at 
its citadel, that he has caught the eye and the ear 
and aroused the hope of mankind. 



10 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

Christ would be no Saviour worth talking about 
if he could not save men from their sins. To save 
a man in his sins, and leave their stain and foulness 
on him, would mean nothing. There can be no 
real salvation that does not save us from our sins. 
That is what Christ came to do, and that is what 
he is doing all the time. 

First of all, Christ delivers us from the penalty 
of our past sins. This is something that we can- 
not do for ourselves. If we had never sinned in 
all the history of our lives we would only have 
been doing our duty, and after we have sinned 
against God there is nothing we can do which will 
merit the setting aside of sin's penalty. It is some- 
thing that no one among our fellow-men can do for 
us. A mother cannot redeem her own son, though 
God knows many a mother would be willing to do 
it at the price of her life. A mother came to me 
not long ago and told me how her son was wan- 
dering away from God, and how sin was despoiling 
his life and ruining him soul and body. And that 
woman said to me, with her face wet with tears and 
her hands clinched together, "How gladly I would 
die for him if I could set him back again the same 
pure and wholesome boy that he was ten years 
ago!" But all that mother's love had no power, 
and can have no power, to pay the penalty of sin 
and make it possible for sin to be pardoned. But 



f JESUS THE SINNER'S SAVIOUR 11 

"God so loved the world" that he gave Christ to 
'die for us and redeem us. He was God's own Son. 
He had no sin of his own to account for. He came 
to stand in our place, and offer himself as a sacri- 
fice for us. Peter says, "For Christ also hath once 
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he 
might bring us to God." Christ suffered for us 
that he might save us from the one great cause 
which makes men suffer. It is sin that has brought 
suffering into the world, and every cruel, bitter 
heartache that the world has known has somewhere 
come from that one source. Men try to make 
themselves happy while all the time they carry in 
their own hearts the sin which brings them under 
condemnation to the penalty of God's broken law 
and makes happiness and peace impossible. Jesus 
Christ is the One, and the only One, who can cer- 
tainly give peace to every human heart, because 
through his death and suffering he has conquered 
the great source of our suffering and our sorrow. 

Dr. Arthur Brooks tells how there once stood in 
proud seclusion one of the steepest peaks in the 
Alps. Men looked at it and said that human foot 
could never scale its heights. Bolder spirits tried 
every way which they could devise, but still there 
towered above them that inaccessible point. At 
length a wiser, more experienced eye was turned 
to that very side which had been pronounced evi- 



12 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

dently impossible ; and as he thus faced what had 
seemed the most despairing side of the problem he 
saw that the strata of the earth below, broken sharp 
off in the upheaval of that majestic peak, fur- 
nished a series of steps which made possible a pas- 
sage directly to the summit; and now every year 
even inexperienced feet make their way over the 
path thus opened. 

So human philosophers knew not how to solve 
the problem of human sorrows and cure the heart- 
ache and bring peace to the soul ; but Jesus Christ 
found the way. He came, the Just One, and the 
Holy One, with no spot upon him, and he died, the 
just for the unjust, and through his stripes we 
may be healed. I am able to preach to you to- 
night the possibility of the forgiveness of your 
sins and the pardon of all your past transgressions 
only because Jesus Christ came into the World 
and took upon himself your flesh and bore your 
sorrows and your sufferings and was tempted in 
all points like as you are, and yet in it all was with- 
out sin, and finally went to the cross and died 
there, a cruel death, not because he had sinned, for 
there was not one sin in his record, there was no 
condemnation hanging over his head, but he died 
for you, that he might redeem you and make it 
possible that, pleading his name and his merits, 
you might have the forgiveness of your sins. 



JESUS THE SINNER'S SAVIOUR 13 

Surely it is not possible for any one of you to con- 
template this without it touching the fountain of 
tears and arousing in you the sort of gratitude 
that will lead you to give love and open confession 
to the Christ who died in your place. 

Once a company of men who had taken part in 
a rebellion and had been captured were sentenced 
to have every tenth man shot, to deter others from 
like conduct. Among these were two, a father and 
son. They were drawn up in a long line. The 
first man and every tenth man thereafter was 
marked for death. The father and son stood to- 
gether, and as the son ran his eye along the line he 
discovered that his father was a doomed man. He 
realized what it would be to have their family left 
without a head, his mother a widow, the old home 
stripped of its life and joy, and, quick as thought, 
he made his father change places with him, and a 
moment later he fell in his stead. He became his 
father's substitute. And do you wonder that in 
after years the father could never speak of that 
son except with a quivering voice and tear-wet 
eyes — the son that took his doom and died in his 
place? So there came a time when you were 
doomed, and all our race was doomed, because of 
sin ; and then Jesus came and stepped in your place, 
and he took the smiting that was meant for your 
shoulders, he took the spear in his heart that was 



U THE HEALING OF SOULS 

meant for you, and he died in your place. Is there 
no love in your heart to-night that rises up to 
return gratitude and loving confession to the Christ 
that died to redeem and save you from the guilt and 
punishment due for your sins ? 

Nothing stings us to the heart more than to feel 
that one for whom we have suffered and toward 
whom we have shown great love should be ungrate- 
ful. But you have known about Jesus and about 
his deathless love for you, some of you for many 
years, and yet you have lived as though you did 
not know it, or, if you did know it, as though you 
did not care. How unnatural that is ! How un- 
worthy of you ! If any one of your acquaintances 
had risked his life to save you, you would be 
ashamed of yourself that you did not show him 
more gratitude than you have shown to Jesus. 

The Duke of Orleans, father of Louis Philippe, 
the last king of the French, was on one occasion out 
riding, followed by his servant, who was also on 
horseback. The Duke had safely crossed an old 
bridge over a rapid stream, but when his man- 
servant was following the bridge gave way and 
horse and rider were thrown into the river. In a 
moment the duke leaped from his horse's back, 
plunged into the stream, and with considerable peril 
and difficulty succeeded in saving the drowning man 
and bringing him to land. As soon as he could 



/ 



JESUS THE SINNER'S SAVIOUR 15 

rise, all dripping as he was, the man threw himself 
full length at his master's feet, and promised him 
that the gratitude and service of a lifetime should 
show the sincerity of his love and thanksgiving for 
the great mercy that had been shown him. 

O my friend, when there was no eye to pity and 
no arm to save, then Jesus came out from the heart 
of God and dared suffering and loneliness and in- 
sult and anguish and death to save you. And now, 
to-night, I beg of you that you give him your love, 
that you give him your open confession of grati- 
tude and thanksgiving, and on this first night of 
the new year let all the world know that hence- 
forth by the grace of God you will put this re- 
deemed life of yours at the service of your divine 
Lord. 

Jesus not only saves from the penalty of sin, but 
he is able and willing to save from the power of 
sin. O, how sin tyrannizes over men! There is 
no tyrant on earth so terrible as sin. Sin makes 
men do things that shame and disgrace them in 
their own eyes and in the eyes of people they love 
best. How many times men have said to me about 
certain sins : "I am a slave. Over and over again I 
have promised myself and my wife and my best 
friend that I would do right ; but when the deadly 
spell is upon me I am driven like a man handcuffed 
to his dungeon. I wallow in my sin, and I cannot 



16 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

help it." It is an awful thing for a man to get into 
a situation like that. And if I speak to some who 
are not Christians, and yet feel that this is an ex- 
aggerated statement, I warn you to flee your sins 
now and find freedom from them before the terrible 
shackles are fastened down upon your soul. And 
if there is anyone here to whom what I have been 
saying does not seem exaggerated, because you 
are already yourself suffering from this terrible 
tyranny of sin, I bring the good news to you, and 
I would to God that you could hear it with new 
ears to-night, that Jesus Christ is able to set you 
free. How clearly Paul reasons it out in his letter 
to the Romans. He says : "Knowing this, that our 
old man is crucified with him, that the body of 
sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should 
not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from 
sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe 
that we shall also live with him : knowing that Christ 
being raised from the dead dieth no more; death 
hath no more dominion over him. For in that he 
died, he died unto sin once : but in that he liveth, 
he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also your- 
selves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto 
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin 
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should 
obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your 
members as instruments of unrighteousness unto 



JESUS THE SINNER'S SAVIOUR 17 

sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that 
are alive from the dead, and your members as in- 
struments of righteousness unto God. For sin 
shall not have dominion over you." 

That is the great freedom which I offer you to- 
night through Jesus Christ your Saviour. Some 
of you have been reared under the most earnest 
Christian influences, and I doubt not that for some 
of you loved ones have been sending up their 
prayers to God this very day. New Year's Day 
is a day when every praying mother thinks about 
her absent children, or her wandering ones, and 
pleads with God for their salvation. O, that all 
such prayers might be answered to-night ! 

A few weeks ago in England the preacher in a 
large mission hall noticed a great broad-shouldered 
sailor coming in and taking his place in the con- 
gregation. He came in late, after the service had 
begun, and at the close, when an invitation was 
given to an after-service, the sailor came into the 
inquiry room. He hailed a Christian man at the 
door, and said, "Look here, mister, does that preach- 
er mean what \ie says?" 

"Certainly," was the rather curt reply. 

"And do you think the Lord Jesus would save 
me to-night ?" 

"Of course, if you are willing," said the gentle- 
man, in a softened tone, for he was beginning to 



18 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

feel an interest in the big fellow standing before 
him and questioning him so eagerly. 

"Willing! I am that, and I'd like it settled 
straight away." 

"Would you like to see the minister?" 

"Aye, I should that, if he wouldn't think it too 
much trouble to come." 

Very soon the preacher was at his side, and the 
sailor was saying : 

"I had no thought of being here to-night, parson. 
I've been an unthinking fellow since I left home and 
my old mother, two and a half years ago. Such a 
saint mother was, and a widow too ; and I her only 
lad. Not that I've been as bad as many of my 
mates by a long chalk, thank God; but that's all 
because I couldn't get away from thoughts of her 
and her prayers. But I've never written to her, 
nor sent her money when I've earned good wages, 
and many a time I've drunk just to get rid of my 
uneasy thoughts, and to-night I was feeling down- 
right miserable, and I set off for a bit of a spree ; 
but as I came down the street past the hall, the 
singing sounded just heavenly — I used to be in our 
choir at home — and I just longed to come in and 
have a good sing in decent company once more ; and 
I got into the porch, and had my hand on the door, 
and then I remembered that I had never changed 
nor washed myself, and I was back in the street like 



JESUS THE SINNER'S SAVIOUR 19 

a shot, thinking I would match the ' Green Dragon' 
better than a place of worship. ' But somehow, try 
as I would, I could not get away from that door 
and that singing! Such a pull as I never felt 
before in my life was dragging me back again. I 
tried to bargain with myself that I'd have a decent 
rig-out and put up an appearance next Sunday; 
but it was no use, and before I well knew what I 
was doing I was up the steps, in at the door, and 
stuck fast in a seat; and very soon I knew from 
your discourse that it was the Lord that had been 
calling me, and that he wanted me; and he's soft- 
ened my heart, and if only he'll help me I'll be a 
good lad and go home to mother." 

The preacher talked and prayed with the big 
sailor until his faith beheld Christ as his Saviour 
and the light of heaven broke into his soul. And 
as he shook the preacher's hand, heartily, Tom 
Mellor — for that was his name — exclaimed, joy- 
fully, "Aye, but I've got a comfortable feeling at 
my heart ! I have for sure ! And next Saturday 
I'll be off to see mother, and try to make up to her 
for all the trouble I've given her." 

Now, it happened that on Wednesday of that 
week this preacher was conducting a service in a 
smaller town many miles away, and during his ser- 
mon he told of the big sailor's conversion on the 
Sunday night. As he came down from the pulpit 



20 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

he was met by a respectable-looking old woman who 
tremblingly asked him if he knew the name of the 
sailor, and when he told her she exclaimed, "I 
thought so! That's my boy!" 

And then the dear old mother told the minister 
how on the previous Sunday she had thought with 
even more than usual yearning of her wandering 
boy, and then had set out for the evening service. 
But her shawl was thin and her steps feeble, and 
when she had gone about half the distance she 
encountered a heavy storm of rain and sleet and 
turned into a friend's house for shelter. She, 
also, was a widow, and a woman of earnest piety 
and strong faith, and was very prompt in her sug- 
gestion that, as it seemed impossible for either of 
them to attend public worship that night, they 
should have a little prayer meeting all by them- 
selves instead; and, knowing her friend's great 
anxiety about Tom, she proposed that he should be 
the special subject of their prayer. And at that 
very hour, in a city many miles away, the prodigal 
was led to his Father's house, and the poor widow, 
though her eyes were still holden concerning the 
deliverance, saved out of her distress. 

Are not some of you who hear me morally certain 
that this day prayers have been going up in your 
behalf? Let those prayers be answered to-night in 
your salvation ! 



II 

THE LIGHT THAT CONDEMNS 

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and 
men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 
—John iii, 19. 

We shall be judged according to our light. No 
man will be judged worthy of condemnation who 
has lived up to the light which God gave him. 
Condemnation comes when a man knows better than 
he does. God will be entirely just with us. If 
we are condemned at last it will be because, having 
seen the light and known the better way, we re- 
fused to enter that way and turned our faces 
toward the darkness. It is the terrible folly of sin 
that it often leads the sinner to refuse the light 
that would lead him to salvation. This is true of 
doubt. A man excuses himself for not becoming 
a Christian because he cannot believe certain great 
Christian truths ; but he will not act on the truth 
he does believe, which would lead him into all 
truth. Down at the bottom he does not wish to 
believe, because his belief would bring condemna- 
tion on himself. The man who honestly doubts, 
and who is really willing to find the truth, is never 
kept long away from the light of salvation. Take 



22 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

the case of Thomas, who was in that first group of 
friends of Jesus when he was on earth. When 
the other disciples came and told Thomas about 
the resurrection of Christ he did not believe it. 
He thought they had been deceived. Yet his heart 
was heavy and he really wished it were true. But 
he could not understand how it could be, and he 
declared that he would not believe unless he could 
put his own hands into the wounds of Jesus. Not 
long after that Thomas was with the disciples when 
Jesus appeared to them, and when, instead of re- 
proaching Thomas, Jesus accepted his terms and 
said to him, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold 
my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust 
it into my side : and be not faithless, but believing," 
all Thomas's doubts went to the winds. The very 
sight of Jesus was enough to convince Thomas. 
He did not go to the length which he had demanded, 
but instead he cried out with loving faith, "My 
Lord and my God !" 

Now in Thomas you see an honest doubter who 
accepted the light when it came to him, and when 
he was convinced did not hold out for a moment, 
but immediately acknowledged his Lord. You 
have a very different case in those men who put 
Stephen to death. As Stephen urged home upon 
them the prophecies which made it clear that Christ 
was the true Messiah, and that they had put to 



THE LIGHT THAT CONDEMNS 23 

death the Saviour of the world, Luke, who writes 
the account, says, "They were cut to the heart, and 
they gnashed on him with their teeth." 

The men that murdered Stephen believed what 
he said. The light from heaven had shone upon 
their eyes, but the light condemned them, and they 
would not have it, they would not accept it. They 
could not have helped but admire the angel-like 
face of Stephen if it had not condemned them. In 
that trying moment Stephen looked upward and 
the heavenly world opened to his eyes. He saw 
God seated upon the throne, and he saw Jesus, his 
Saviour, at the right hand of the Majesty on high. 
He forgot all the rage that was around him, the 
cruel taunt and the stinging blow, and he cried out, 
in infinite joy, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, 
and the Son of man standing on the right hand of 
God." And those men, looking on Stephen's face, 
believed it. They knew he was looking into 
heaven, for they saw light in his face brighter than 
any light of earth. But they could not yield to 
the fact that he saw Christ, the Crucified, he whom 
they themselves had crucified, in ascended glory, 
for that meant condemnation to them. And so 
they did what many men have been doing ever since 
— they "stopped their ears, and ran upon him with 
one accord, and cast him out of the city." How 
infinitely wiser it would have been to have kept 



24 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

their ears open ; for the Christ who when hanging 
on the cross prayed for his murderers, "Father, for- 
give them," would not have refused his intercession 
and forgiveness to these wicked men now if, seeing 
the light, they had welcomed it and turned from 
their sins. 

This, then, is our great message to-night: Fol- 
low the light which God gives you and it will lead 
you to heaven. It does not take a great deal of 
light to lead heavenward one who is willing to be 
led. 

( There was a Bohemian gypsy girl who was very 
beautiful, and who, on account of her remarkable 
perfection of features, was employed by a great 
German artist to sit for him as a model. In his 
studio she saw an unfinished painting of the Cruci- 
fixion, and asked him who "that wicked man" was 
and what he had done to deserve such punishment. 
The artist smiled at her ignorance, and told her 
that the man nailed to the cross was not wicked, but 
good; indeed, the best man that had ever lived in 
the world. From that time, the girl's interest in 
the story of the cross never ceased. She never came 
into the studio that her first look and her last were 
not given to that picture of the crucifixion. She 
was utterly untaught, and it was by her questions 
— rather grudgingly answered by the painter, who 
had no real Christian sympathy — that she got her 



THE LIGHT THAT CONDEMNS 25 

first knowledge of the Saviour of mankind. She 
felt the artist's lack of feeling, and wondered at it, 
and one day when this was more than usually ap- 
parent she said to him: 

"I should think you would love him, if he died 
for you." 

The remark fastened itself in the artist's mind. 
The death of Christ had appealed to him as a pic- 
torial tragedy. The divine life of Jesus had never 
touched him. The ignorant Bohemian girl had 
presented the subject to him in another way, and it 
would not let him rest until he sought religious 
counsel, and before long became a servant and a 
sincere worshiper of the crucified Christ. 

Under the inspiration of this new love for Christ 
he took up the picture which had attracted the girl's 
attention, and finished it. It was hung in the Dus- 
seldorf gallery, with this inscription : 

"I did this for thee; what hast thou done for 
Me?" 

Some time afterward, going to the gallery, he 
found the Bohemian girl, who had been the cause of 
his own conversion, weeping in front of the paint- 
ing. This time he could speak to her as a 
Christian. 

"Master," she sobbed, "did he die for the poor 
Bohemians, too?" 

"Yes, he died for all." 



26 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

And that very hour the crucified Saviour gained 
another disciple in the Bohemian girl. 

A few months later, dying in a gypsy camp not 
far from the city, the girl sent for the artist, and 
thanked him. 

"I am going to him now," she said, joyfully. "I 
love him, and I know he loves me." 

Years afterward a frivolous young nobleman 
looked on the same picture, and the study of it and 
the rebuking pathos of its inscription, "I did this 
for thee; what hast thou done for Me?" so moved 
and influenced him that he consecrated himself to 
the service of God. The young nobleman was 
Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravian 
Church, and the man who wrote the hymn, 

"Jesus, thy blood and righteousness 
My beauty are, my glorious dress; 
'Midst naming worlds, in these arrayed, 
With joy shall I lift up my head." 

He wrote also that other hymn, 

"I thirst, thou wounded lamb of God, 
To wash me in thy cleansing blood; 
To dwell within thy wounds; then pain 
Is sweet, and life or death is gain." 

How many more that picture won to Christ we 
can never know. But see from how small a flame 
all this glorious result was kindled! How much 
more light you have had than had that poor girl ! 



THE LIGHT THAT CONDEMNS 27 

And yet you are still in the darkness, with no con- 
sciousness that your sins are forgiven, going the 
deeper into the darkness as the years go on. O my 
friends, if you will only take the light you have 
to-night, and do as well as you know, here and now, 
it will lead you to the light of perfect day.} 

Dr. A. C. Dixon tells of a prosperous worldly 
man whose Christian wife had died praying for his 
conversion. He was lying awake in the darkness 
of his room, one night, when he heard a voice from 
a little bed at his side, "Papa, it's so dark, take my 
hand.' 5 He took the little hand extended in the 
dark, and held it gently until the frightened child 
dropped asleep. Then this strong business man 
looked up through the darkness, and said, "Father, 
it is so dark; take my hand as I have taken the 
hand of my dear child. Give me rest of soul for 
Jesus' sake." Peace entered his broken heart, and 
he rejoiced in full salvation. A little beam of light 
had come to him in his child's appeal to him in its 
weakness and fear. The sense of helpless weakness 
had led him to stretch the hand of his soul up to 
God, and Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the 
dead, was the hand by which God took hold and 
saved him in a moment. Lift your hand up into 
the darkness to-night, trusting God through Jesus 
Christ, and he will take hold upon you, and save 
you, for Christ is able "to save them to the utter- 



28 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

most that come unto God by him, seeing he ever 
liveth to make intercession for them." 

But if you refuse this light which I bring to 
you, and turn from it, you must needs enter into the 
deeper darkness that can only mean sorrow and still 
greater sorrow as the years go on. It is a terrible 
thing to grow old without God and without the 
precious comforts of an unfailing hope and a cer- 
tain assurance of a happy immortality. 

A gentleman tells about meeting on the street a 
man who was nearing his fourscore years. His 
body had all the marks of age. His shoulders were 
stooped. He walked tremblingly with a cane. 
His voice was husky, his hair was white, his eye was 
dim, and his face had the furrows which time and 
trial had plowed upon it. And yet his face was 
joyous, and there was about the old man an atmos- 
phere of gladness and hope. As he came up with 
him he was humming the tune of a buoyant hymn, 
and as he slowed up by his side the gentleman said, 
"Why should an old man be so merry?" 

"All are not," said he. 

"Well, why, then, should you be so merry?" 

"Because I belong to the Lord." 

"Are none others happy at your time of life ?" 

"No, not one," said the old man, earnestly. "No 
man is happy at my age without God. The devil 
has no happy old men." 



THE LIGHT THAT CONDEMNS 29 

And I press that home upon you young people, 
and you middle-aged men and women. The devil 
has no happy old men or happy old women. It 
is not possible that a man or a woman should come 
to the end of life with no title to heaven, with no 
fellowship with God, with no certain hope in Jesus 
Christ, and have happiness and peace. O my 
friend, if the light of the Gospel which I preach 
to you to-night condemns you, I pray you do not 
turn from it on that account, but turn toward it 
that you may know the truth and that the truth 
may make you free. You may be saved here and 
now, if you will live up to the light you have. Dur- 
ing the civil war an officer in the Union army, hav- 
ing received his death wound, was visited in the 
hospital tent by the chaplain, who inquired if he 
was prepared to meet his God. He smiled, and 
said: "Chaplain, I was once passing through the 
streets of New York on Sunday, and heard singing. 
I went in and saw a company of poor people. 
They were singing, 'There is a fountain filled with 
blood.' I was impressed profoundly, and it came 
to me as a personal message, and right then and 
there, while they sang, I gave my heart to God. 
Since then I have belonged to God, and have served 
him. Death has lost its terror for me." You 
may come to Christ just as readily if you will. 
Come to him now ! 



Ill 

TREASURES THAT CANNOT BE STOLEN 

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and 
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal : but 
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor 
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal : 
for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.— Matthew 
vi, 19-21. 

A wise traveler never carries much money with him 
while on his journey. If he be a man of wealth and 
expects to engage in large operations in the country 
to which he is going, he will carry with him a draft 
that will be serviceable at his destination, or he will 
have treasure forwarded so that he may have it to 
draw upon when he arrives. To carry large sums 
of money on his person would only subject him to 
unnecessary care and anxiety, and also put him in 
constant danger of being robbed, and quite pos- 
sibly of losing his life in order that he might be 
robbed. Our journey through this world to the 
eternity beyond is fairly described by that illustra- 
tion. While we are passing through the world we 
constantly need sufficient of the goods of this 
world to pay our way on our journey, but the 
money and treasure which worldly men value here 
will be of no use whatever to us when we arrive 



TREASURES THAT ARE SECURE 31 

at our final destination. It would be very unwise 
for us to invest all our time and strength in acquir- 
ing wealth which we cannot carry over the boundary 
line of death, and which if we could would be worth- 
less. If a man were going to San Francisco or to 
London from New York he would hardly think it 
worth while to carry paving stones with him, or 
gateposts, as a matter of treasure. But in heaven 
the streets are paved with gold and the gates are 
studded with jewels. There could be no greater 
folly than for men and women, journeying so 
swiftly toward eternity where an endless life awaits, 
to squander all their time gathering treasures which 
can only serve to make a tombstone, which is often 
a monument of folly at the last. 

Especially is this folly apparent when we are 
told by the Lord Jesus that it is possible for us to 
transfer spiritual treasures to the heavenly shores 
and to carry with us a draft on the Bank of Heaven, 
so that we shall not come to the shores of immor- 
tality bankrupt exiles, but may have a mansion 
fitted for us there. We may have treasures there 
that no moth can corrupt, that no thief can steal, 
and that can never be taken from us. One of the 
most beautiful things that Christ has told us is that 
it is possible for us to turn the gold of this world 
into heavenly treasure if it is gained and used in 
the spirit of love for him. The love that ministers 



32 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

in his name to the hungry and the naked and the 
sick becomes divine gold that shall be put to our 
account in the Bank of Heaven. 

A young Swede who was a poor stable boy, a 
hostler in a Western livery stable, went up to 
Alaska a year or two ago, and prospered. He has 
just given a hundred thousand dollars to endow a 
Western college. When a home missionary asked 
him what he was going to do with his money, when 
it first began to come in in large amounts, the young 
fellow said, "I mean to do more for the world than 
the world ever did for me." That was a splendid 
answer, and spoken in the spirit of Christ, and the 
man who gives in that spirit transmutes his gold into 
heavenly coin. 

Mrs. Farningham tells of a poor woman in Eng- 
land who was called to make a long journey to visit 
her sick son. She could ill afford the expense, and 
yet she could not stay away from her boy. She had 
money for a third-class ticket to where he lay ill, but 
how would she get home again? But a mother's 
heart will take risks, and she went to the station, 
and as she went up to the ticket office she saw a 
gentleman who seemed to be watching the people 
as they passed up for their tickets. A porter stood 
behind him carrying the man's bag. The gentleman 
looked at her with a searching but kindly glance, 
and then dropped in next behind her. He, too, 



TREASURES THAT ARE SECURE 33 

bought a third-class ticket. The porter looked on 
with disapproval. He thought it a mean thing for 
so fine a gentleman to travel third-class. He stepped 
up to the gentleman. "First-class, sir?" 

"No, third." 

The woman was nervously walking up and down 
the platform, looking at the carriages. The gentle- 
man opened one. "Are you going on?" he inquired, 
kindly. "There is room here." 

"Thank you, sir." 

He got in after her, and was soon taken up with 
his newspaper. At first the poor woman was so de- 
lighted at being really on the way to her son that 
all other thoughts were banished, but presently the 
harassing question intruded itself again. She won^ 
dered how she was to return, and her face grew 
pale and disturbed. 

The gentleman, who had noticed the anxiety in 
her face at the ticket office and had suspected her 
poverty, began a conversation with his fellow- 
passenger : 

"Are you going far?" 

His manner was gentle and sympathetic, and be- 
fore long he was in possession of the facts. They 
were both silent afterward until his destination was 
nearly reached. Then he slipped a piece of gold 
into her hand. "It is a habit of mine to travel third- 
class, and give the difference between the cost of the 
3 



34 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

first and the third to anyone in the carriage to whom 
a little help seems acceptable," he said. 

"What a beautiful thing to do," said the woman, 
looking at the money in great amazement. "Do 
you mean this is for me, sir? Why, it is the cost of 
my return ticket. I did not mean to beg when I 
told you about my boy and my savings. You know 
I am doing it for love's sake, and — " 

"Yes, I am doing it for love's sake, too. Good- 
bye. I hope you will find your son better." 

Who doubts that that piece of gold was trans- 
muted into heavenly wealth ? It was given for love 
of Christ, and no gifts in his name, given for love's 
sake, fail of recognition. 

A lady in Scotland, whose husband had left her 
a competence, had two profligate sons who wasted 
her substance with riotous living. When she saw 
that her property was being squandered she deter- 
mined to make an offering to the Lord. She took 
twenty pounds and gave it to the London Mis- 
sionary Society. Her sons were very angry at this, 
and told her she might as well cast her money into 
the sea. "I will cast it into the sea," she replied, 
"and it shall be my bread upon the waters." 

The sons, having spent all they could get, enlisted 
in a regiment and were sent to India. Their posi- 
tions were far apart, but God so ordered that both 
were stationed near good missionaries. The elder 



TREASURES THAT ARE SECURE 35 

one was led to repent of sin and embraced Christ. 
He shortly afterward died. 

Meanwhile the widowed mother was praying for 
her boys. One evening, as she was taking down her 
family Bible to read, the door softly opened, and 
the younger son appeared to greet the aged mother. 
He told her that he had turned to God and Christ 
had blotted out all his sins. Then he narrated his 
past history in connection with the influence the 
faithful missionaries had had on his life; while his 
mother, with tears of overflowing gratitude, ex- 
claimed: "O, my twenty pounds! My twenty 
pounds ! I have cast my bread upon the waters, and 
now I have found it after many days." 

From the treasures which we store up in heaven 
we get a most precious income while we are travel- 
ing through this world. One of the noblest treas- 
ures that anyone can ever have in this world is a 
sincere and faithful friend, a friend that can always 
be depended upon for sympathy and comfort and 
congenial and loving fellowship. There are a 
thousand things that may interfere with earthly 
friendships, but there is a friendship which you may 
make, and you may begin it this very night, which 
nothing save coldness or indifference on your part 
can ever interfere with, and a friendship which will 
give you more joy and comfort of soul than any 
other friendship you could make on earth. 



36 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

Mrs. Browning once asked Charles Kingsley to 
tell her the secret of his marvelous character and 
life. "What is the secret of your life? Tell me," 
she said, most earnestly, "because I wish my life to 
be beautiful like yours." And the noble Kingsley 
answered her in five words. They were, "I have had 
a friend." Ah, yes, he had a friend ! He had made 
friends with Jesus, and whenever he was tired or 
overburdened he sunned himself in conversation with 
his Friend. When he was overborne by the world's 
sorrow which he was trying to lighten, and when he 
was tempted to lose his faith in men and lose the 
hope of making them better, he went to his Friend, 
and his faith and hope grew strong again. Christ 
is willing to be just such a friend to you. Ah, we 
shall need him ! We need him always ; but there 
come to every one of us times of sickness and pain 
and disappointment when Jesus is the only friend 
who can come to our relief. How glorious then to 
have a tender and loving friendship with him. 

One of the noblest men this country has ever seen 
was Major Whittle. A little while before he died, 
during a sleepless night, when he could not sleep for 
the pain, but while Jesus kept his heart bright and 
joyous with sweet fellowship, he wrote a little poem 
suggested to him by the chimes of the bedroom clock 
that announced the going of the hours to him. 
Lying on his sick bed, he wrote : 



TREASURES THAT ARE SECURE 37 

"Swift with melodious feet, 

The midnight hours pass by; 
As with each chiming bell so sweet 

I think, 'My Lord draws nigh.' 

"I see heaven's open door, 

I hear God's gracious voice; 
I see the blood-washed round the throne, 

And with them I rejoice. 

"It may be that these sounds 

Are the golden bells so sweet, 
Which tell me of the near approach 

Of the heavenly High Priest's feet. 

"But the Lord remains the same, 

Faithful he must abide; 
And on his word my soul I'll rest, 

For he is by my side. 

"Some midnight, sleepless saints, 

Made quick by pain to hear, 
Shall join the glad and welcome cry, 

'The Bridegroom draweth near!' 

"Then shall I see his face, 

His beauteous image bear; 
I'll know his love and wondrous grace, 

And in his glory share. 

"So sing my soul in praise, 

As bells chime o'er and o'er, 
The coming of the Lord draws near, 

When time shall be no more." 

If we have this friendship with Jesus Christ, God 
promises that we shall be fellow-heirs with Jesus, 
and all the treasures of the heavenly world will come 



38 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

to us. We get everything through Jesus. Give 
your heart to Christ in sincere love, thus winning 
his forgiving love in return, and all the treasures 
of a glorious immortality are yours. 

A quaint childless old man died leaving much 
wealth, and although careful search was made no 
will could be found. After a while the house furni- 
ture was put up for sale. An old woman was pres- 
ent at the auction who had once been nurse to the 
old man's only son, till the angels called him away. 
She had loved the boy dearly, and when a painted 
portrait of the little fellow was put up for sale 
quite a curious sensation came into her throat. 

"Who bids ?" cried out the auctioneer. 

"0, 1 wish I could !" sighed the poor woman, "but 
I have only a shilling, and it will never go for that." 

It was a very poor sort of a picture, and no one 
even bid a penny. 

"Please, sir," the poor woman ventured to say, "I 
will give a shilling for it, but I could not give more, 
as that is all I have." 

"A shilling is bid," cried out the man ; "anything 
further?" 

No one said anything, and so the picture was 
knocked down to the shilling bidder. 

When she got the picture home she took it out of 
the frame to clean it, and there was the old man's 
missing will, and it read something like this : "Who- 



TREASURES THAT ARE SECURE 39 

ever buys my son's portrait shall have all I possess ; 
for perhaps some one will buy it who loved my son." 
Thus the poor old woman became rich, and all 
through the love she bore the old man's son. 

God's heart is the heart of a father also, and 
Jesus said, "If any man serve me, him will my 
Father honor." 

Make friendship with Jesus to-night, and you 
shall have treasures better than any the world can 
give, and treasures from which death cannot rob 
you; treasures which will safely pass the judgment 
seat ; treasures that shall enrich your soul, and fill 
heaven with joy and welcome for you throughout 
eternity. 



IV 

THE POISONED SPRING 

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, 
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickeduess, 
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness : all 
these evil things come from within, and defile the man.— Mark 
vii, 21-23. 

We cannot but recall those other words of Jesus 
in which he declares that a good life comes from a 
good heart, and a bad life comes from a bad heart ; 
that the heart is like a fountain : if it be bitter, then 
the waters that fill the stream cannot be sweet; if 
the spring be poisoned, then the life will be deadly. 
And in our text Jesus distinctly declares that the 
heart which is poisoned and perverted by sin is the 
immediate and direct source of all these vile sins 
which are mentioned here in our text. The solemn 
message which I have to bring you this evening is 
no matter of speculation or theory of my own. I 
bring you the solemn statement of Jesus Christ, 
that the center of sin is in the heart itself. Unless 
the heart be purified there can be no assurance of a 
good life, but a certainty that the life will finally be 
evil. 

The world has always been trying to reach re- 
spectable and honorable living by a short cut. A 



THE POISONED SPRING 41 

man finds that certain sins are disgracing him and 
shaming him, and he undertakes to lop off those 
sins. He does not take into consideration that the 
cause for these sins is in the love for sin in his own 
heart, and that the only real cure is to have his heart 
cleansed of that love for sin. 

Human nature is just the same now as it was in 
the days of Paul. Paul found it impossible to do 
right while there was in his heart a love for sin. He 
says that he found the good that he wanted to do — 
that is, the good that appealed to his judgment and 
his reason and his higher nature — he did not do; 
and the evil thing which his judgment told him was 
wicked and disgraceful, and which he determined 
not to do, he still found himself doing. He discov- 
ered that the secret was that the fountain of his 
heart was poisoned by sin. He was like a man who 
had chained about his neck a dead body, and he 
could not do as he would. The only way that salva- 
tion could come to him was by setting him free from 
that body of death, by purifying the heart that 
loved evil things, and then his judgment and his 
reason were brought into harmony with his affec- 
tions and desires, and all were under the dominion 
of Christ. So completely was this so that Paul was 
able to say, "I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
me." 

I doubt not I am speaking to some who have de- 



42 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

termined to do better. You have been looking back 
over jour life, and you are not satisfied with it, and 
you have come to the conclusion that you will break 
with some habits, and you will hold yourself more 
completely in line with better things. Yet you will 
fail unless the heart is changed. The fountain in 
your breast must be cleansed or it will overcome all 
your determination. Christ makes nothing more 
plain to us than this, that the fountain of sin is in 
our hearts. It is a poison of the blood, a curse that 
smites the will, that paralyzes our power to do right. 
But, thank God, while sin is in us, it is not yet of 
us ; it does not belong to us ; it is not our true self ; 
and it is the mission of Christ to cleanse and purify 
our hearts of it. 

Sin is a foreign enemy in our hearts. Sin is a 
witness that we are a good thing that has been 
spoiled. The sinner is a prodigal in a far country, 
but he may be brought back home. "Man," says 
Pascal, "has all the signs of being a king de- 
throned." And as such I come to you, to urge upon 
you that you recognize the evil possibilities that are 
in your heart, and that you bring your heart to 
Christ that it may be cleansed and purified. It is 
not a small thing that I ask of you. Religion is not 
a thing like a coat that a man can put on or off as 
he will. I am not asking you simply to make good 
resolutions, I am asking you to turn from your sins, 



THE POISONED SPRING 43 

and turn to Christ in obedience. The promise is, 
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all 
unrighteousness." I am asking you to repent of 
your sins — that is, to turn away from them; to 
give them up here and now; to break with them 
at once. 

Right there is where many fail. They say: 
"Well, I'll think about it. Sin has complicated my 
life. It is not easy to break off at once, and say I 
will not sin any more. I will try and arrange my 
affairs and get ready to quit my evil ways and be- 
come a Christian." You cannot get ready in that 
way, and the minute you try to arrange things 
yourself by some sort of compromise, your treach- 
erous heart, that got you into your sins in the first 
place, will betray you again, and you will be bound 
tighter than ever. You will sink the deeper into 
the mire as you flounder and try to get out. 

No, the way to get out is not by floundering in 
your own strength. The way of escape is through 
surrender to Jesus Christ. He knows all the evil 
of your heart. He knows all the wicked complica- 
tions into which your sin has brought you, and he 
alone knows how to cut the cords of evil that bind 
you in a hundred ways. Drop everything and 
come to Jesus. Throw yourself on his mercy ; put 
yourself into his hands, and he will make an infi- 



44 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

nitely better adjustment of all your difficulties than 
you are able to make yourself. Besides, he will 
cleanse your heart and purify your soul. He will 
kindle in you a love for good things and for pure 
things. He will pull your feet out of the mire 
where they are now sinking, and set them upon a 
rock, and will teach you to sing the new song of 
redeeming love. 

Sometimes the devil keeps a man back by lifting 
his wicked habits up into his gaze, and he sneeringly 
says to him : "You are a pretty man to talk about 
being a Christian ! You know you can't live up to 
it. You will only bring disgrace on Christian peo- 
ple and on yourself. Suppose you were forgiven 
for your sins, what would that amount to? It 
would not be two weeks till you would be sinning 
again. 9 ' But the devil was a liar from the begin- 
ning. What he says might be true enough if 
God's forgiveness was like the forgiveness of man. 
The governor of a State may forgive a thief, and 
give him a free pardon, and send him out into the 
world again; but with the old habit strong upon 
him, and the old thievish propensity asserting 
itself in his heart, he will soon be back into the peni- 
tentiary. Jesus Christ does infinitely more than 
that. He not only forgives the man who, turning 
from his sins, takes hold upon him by faith, but 
with the pardon he gives him a changed heart. He 



THE POISONED SPRING 45 

renews within him a right spirit. He is not only 
relieved from condemnation, but he is taken into 
friendship and fellowship with God and with Christ 
and with all good people, and angel visitors minister 
to him, and so long as he keeps himself in this loving 
association he is safe from all of the temptations 
to evil. 

Christ saves you not by the negative method of 
simply putting you on guard to stand over your- 
selves, and watch for some evil appetite or passion 
or lust to lift its head like a serpent that has been 
hiding in the dark, and to strike it and drive it back 
again until another occasion offers. Ah, no; if 
that were all, a poor salvation it would be indeed. 
But Jesus proposes to cleanse your hearts, not that 
they may be left empty, but that instead of the vile 
registry of visitors which are written down here in \ 
our text there shall be a new registration of tenants ' 
in your soul. Love, and hope, and faith, and joy, 
and peace, and patience, and gentleness, and gen- 
erosity, and humility, and courage, and truth, and 
honesty, and holiness shall come and dwell in your 
hearts, and a life of gladness and helpfulness shall 
be carried on there, a positive life of goodness. 

Now I know that, as I speak to you, there is 
something in your hearts that answers to it. You 
do not belong to the devil ; you are not made for sin 
and evil; you belong to goodness; Christ is your 



46 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

elder brother, and there is something in every one 
of your hearts that responds to all that I can say 
about God and his love and the heaven to which he 
invites you. You know that your home is not in 
the camps of iniquity. Your home is not in the far 
country with the swine. Your home is in the 
Father's house, and I come to you with this appeal 
knowing that for you to come back to God and for- 
sake your sins is the most natural thing in the world 
for you to do. It is but coming home. 

When the House of Commons, in England, ad- 
journs for the night it is the regular custom for 
one of the officials to cry, "Who goes home?" But 
nobody pays any attention to his question in these 
days. It is an old custom which once was alive 
with meaning, but has no meaning now. In olden 
times it was very necessary, owing to the dangers 
in the streets from robbers and from the want of 
lights, for members going in the same direction to 
join company for protection, and they went to- 
gether, well armed, and were lighted on their way 
home by a linkboy. But in these times of compara^ 
tive safety and abundant facility for traveling all 
the old precautions are needless, and if members 
do leave the House of Commons together it is not 
for mutual protection, but simply for the pleasure 
of having each other's company by the way. Still, 
it is interesting that the familiar cry should be 



THE POISONED SPRING 47 

continued, even though it has lost the meaning it 
once had. 

The old custom, and the intense meaning that 
once illuminated it, ought to have a suggestion for 
us. The journey of life has many dangers. It is 
beset by robbers who outrage unwary travelers and 
steal from them all that is worth having. No man 
walks safely on this journey except he has the 
fellowship of Jesus Christ and the helpful associa- 
tion of Christian men and women who are also 
going home to heaven. And I come to you this 
evening, and I cry out to you, "Who goes home?" 
If you will come with us I am sure we will do you 
good. We will share with you the love of our 
Saviour, and you will find him, as we have found 
him, a sure defender in every time of need. 

I wish I knew what to say to you to make you 
know how willing Christ is to take you, just as 
you are, with all your sins, and forgive you, and 
give you the gladness and the peace of a pure 
heart and the comfort of knowing that all your 
sins are blotted out and that God is pleased with 
you. 

A while ago, in one of our New York city mis- 
sions, where there is a medical dispensary, a Chris- 
tian physician noticed a young man come into the 
consulting room. His dress and appearance was 
much like the others, but something in his manner, 



48 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

and in the few words in which he described his 
illness, convinced the doctor that he was not a 
native of this city. After prescribing for him the 
doctor said, "You don't seem to belong to this 
neighborhood." 

"No, indeed," was the reply, uttered in a tone 
of regret. 

"Where is your home?" 

There was a long-drawn sigh as he answered, 
"Three hundred miles away ;" and the young fellow 
seemed to be thinking that in another sense he was 
still further off. 

"Long since you left home?" 

"Yes, sir, many a long month. I have traveled 
over all these States, and in California and Canada, 
and an awful rough time I've had of it." 

"I don't doubt it, my boy. No place like home, 
is there?" 

"Indeed, no, sir. I wish I was there now, but 
I'm in no condition to go." 

The good doctor saw a chance to save a soul, and 
so he said, kindly: "It's a great comfort to think 
those difficulties don't keep us from going to Christ 
when we wish to, is it not? He would receive us 
in any condition, and without money, you know. 
Have you been to him to save you in the same way 
as you have come to me trusting in my power to 
cure you?" 



THE POISONED SPRING 49 

"No, sir, I can't say I have ; at least not for many 
a day, though I was well brought up." 

"Well, it is not too late to try. Christ will give 
you a warm welcome ; he likes to receive people who 
want to turn over a new leaf. Won't you try ?" 

"I will, doctor. You have spoken kindly to me, 
like my own father used to. I ought to tell you 
that the name I gave is not my right name." And, 
feeling that one who had been so sympathetic was 
entitled to the confidence, the lad gave the doctor 
his right name and the name of his native town. 

The doctor appreciated this sign of confidence, 
and said: "I am glad you told me; it may be the 
first step toward better things." 

The doctor wrote to a friend he had in the same 
town, and the very next day a telegram reached him 
begging that the boy be sent home at once. All 
expenses would be defrayed and his aged parents 
would give him a hearty welcome. 

Three days passed before the doctor could find 
the youth. Pie inquired among the men at the 
mission, but none of them had seen him. At last, 
on the third day, he walked into the consulting 
room. 

"I heard you wanted to see me, doctor," he said. 

"Yes," said the doctor. "Here is a letter for 
you. Do you know the writing ?" 

"That is my father's writing," said the boy, 



50 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

staggering to a chair and tearing the letter open. 
As he read it the tears ran down his face. 

"Well, it's a good job, is it not?" the doctor 
asked, as the young fellow looked up. 

"Yes, sir, and thank God for it. They want me 
to go home at once, but I can't go this way. I 
must get some work, so I can get some better clothes. 
I would not like to go home in these dirty rags." 

"But think of your mother watching for you, and 
your father going to meet the trains. You would 
not like to keep them waiting while you earn the 
money for new clothes. They want you badly, 
don't they? They know you are hard up." 

"Yes, sir. I'll go as I am. It would not be 
right to wait." 

"That's good. Now I want you to feel that way 
about Christ. Don't wait to clean up, but go 
straight to him as you are." 

God had dealt so mercifully to him that the boy 
was ready and willing, and right there on their 
knees together, in that consulting room, while the 
doctor prayed, the boy gave his heart to Christ. 

But there was no need to humiliate the boy and 
his family by sending him home in his rags. The 
kind doctor took him to his house and gave him a 
bath and fitted him out with a suit of clothes, and 
then put him on the train for home. 

A grateful letter soon came from the father de- 



THE POISONED SPRING 51 

scribing his son's reception. He and his second 
son had met him at the station, and gave him wel- 
come ; but that was nothing to the welcome he got 
from his mother when they reached home. She 
kissed him and wept over him and clung to him, and 
would not loose him until the neighbors, who had 
been called in, came to share in the joy of the 
reunited family. No such joyful meal had ever 
been eaten in that home. 

That is what Jesus Christ is doing, and that is 
what God is waiting to do for you. Come to him 
just as you are. He knows your condition. He 
knows all your bad habits. He knows all your 
wicked thoughts. He knows all your sorrows. 
But he loves you, and he longs to save you. Come 
home! Come home, and come now! 



V 

NOT A PATCH, BUT A NEW SUIT 

No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that 
which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is 
made worse.— Matthew ix, 16. 

Nothing could show more clearly the difference 
between God's way and man's way in dealing with 
the human heart and life than this plain but striking 
illustration used by our Saviour. Man is always re- 
sorting to religious patchwork. God is ever deter- 
mined to clothe man anew with righteousness. Man 
is always seeking to patch up his habits and make his 
life look respectable and presentable without affect- 
ing the inner purposes which prompt life. But 
God is continually teaching us that such a patch 
is of no account so long as the secret springs of 
personality remain unchanged. Paul sets the mat- 
ter very clearly before us in his letter to the 
Colossians when he says, speaking to people who 
have given themselves to Christ: 

"But now ye also put off all these ; anger, wrath, 
malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of 
your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that 
ye have put off the old man with his deeds ; and have 
put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge 



NOT A PATCH, BUT A NEW SUIT 53 

after the image of him that created him." There 
is no patchwork about that. Paul was urging 
upon these people a complete new suit in religious 
character and life. 

I am sure there are many people who are nominal 
Christians who are cheating their souls and failing 
to live in joyous communion with their Saviour 
because, while they are willing to have their lives 
patched up and freshened in many ways, they have 
not surrendered themselves completely to Christ to 
do his will and follow him in all things. Christ 
cannot save us, he cannot transform and ennoble 
our lives, unless we open every secret closet of our 
hearts to him and permit him to work his will in us, 
cleansing us from all our sins. 

Rev. F. B. Meyer tells us that there was a time 
when, though he was a nominal Christian, he real- 
ized that there was a secret sin which he cherished, 
and that it was keeping him back from Christ. 
And yet he wished to surrender himself to Christ; 
he longed for the forgiveness of his sins; his soul 
hungered and thirsted for communion with Christ. 
It seemed to him as though he offered to Jesus a 
bunch of keys, in which the keys of all the chambers 
of his heart were placed upon the ring of his will, 
except the key to one little room. It was a small 
room, and he hoped that Christ would not notice. 
He knew that in that private closet he was treas- 



54 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

uring up what Christ could never permit, and so it 
was with uneasiness of heart that he placed his 
bunch of keys in the hands of the Master. Jesus 
looked at him with his searching eyes, those eyes 
that look down into the secrets of the soul as they 
looked into the heart of Zacchasus, and asked 
whether they were all there. He blushed a little, 
well knowing what the Master meant, and answered 
that they were all there but one, and that that was 
too insignificant to be worth his care. 

The Master saw that he evaded him, and said, 
sadly, as he returned the keys to him: "I cannot 
take them. If you do not trust me in all you do not 
trust me at all. Besides, how can I keep you clean 
and pure while in that secret closet all manner of 
evil is constantly breeding?" 

Mr. Meyer says he saw the truth of the words, 
but he thought he could not live without the con- 
tents of that secret chamber. He was conscious of 
an evil voice encouraging him in his refusal, and of 
unholy suggestions that, if he were to surrender all, 
there was simply no limit to the demands that 
might be made upon him. On the other hand, he 
knew that Jesus Christ had every right to have all 
the rooms in his heart ; had the right to entire con- 
trol of his life ; and that Jesus meant only good to 
him.- So finally he gave up the struggle and sur- 
rendered unconditionally to Christ, and told him 



NOT A PATCH, BUT A NEW SUIT 55 

he was willing to give up the key. The key seemed 
to cling to the palm of his hand, against which it 
lay, beneath his clasped fingers, yet he was willing 
for Christ to take it, if he would. And it seemed 
as if the Saviour's face lighted with a smile of 
inexpressible joy as he took the offered hand in 
his and opened the fingers one by one. And 
so the Lord took the key that had been keeping 
him out of the one locked chamber of that young 
life. 

As soon as it was in the hands of Jesus he went 
straight and unlocked the door. Then they looked 
in together, and the Master blushed for him, as Mr. 
Meyer says he did for himself. Then with his own 
hands the merciful Lord took up the evil thing and 
bore it without the precincts of his soul, and instead 
of his dying for lack of it, to his surprise he lost all 
desire for it. Jesus not only took away the evil 
thing, but he cleansed the place, opened a window 
in it which commands a view of heaven, and often 
the Lord comes and sits with him there beside 
that window, and they hold sweet communion to- 
gether. 

And so I am sure there are some of you who hear 
me who do not accept Jesus because you have not 
yet been deeply convicted of your sins. You have 
no deep and pungent consciousness of the awful- 
ness of sin. If you could only know how evil your 



56 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

sin is ; if you could only see it "with clear eyes, I am 
sure you would abhor it, and loathe it, and be ready 
for Christ to take it away. If, like Dr. Meyer, you 
would give the key of your heart to Jesus, and let 
him go and unlock the door that shuts in that secret 
sin, and look at it in the light of his faith, in the 
light of heaven which he would let pour into that 
room, I am sure that shame would mantle your 
cheeks, and you would cry out to your Saviour to 
cleanse your heart and your life from all sin. 

We may be sure that only one kind of a charac- 
ter will pass at the judgment. We must all meet 
at the judgment seat of Christ and before the great 
white throne we must be judged. A patched-up 
character will not stand the test there. Sometimes 
you are very lenient, and excuse yourself, and say, 
"O, well, I think my life averages up pretty well. 
I think it's as good as many church members." 
Well, suppose it is. Jesus says that there are many 
church members that will not get into heaven. He 
says that many will come on that day and say, 
"Lord, have we not taken the communion ; have we 
not been eating and drinking in thy name?" And 
he will answer, "Depart from me. I never knew 
you." O friend, these glib phrases about being as 
good as your neighbor will die on your palsied 
lips when you come to stand trembling before the 
great white throne to give your account. Noth- 



NOT A PATCH, BUT A NEW SUIT 57 

ing then but the seamless robe of righteousness, 
made white by the blood of the Lamb, will stand 
the test. 

There was a man in New Hampshire several 
years ago who very much prided himself on his 
own self-righteous morality, and expected to be 
saved by it. He often said: "I am doing pretty 
well, on the whole. I sometimes get mad and 
swear, but then I am strictly honest. I work on 
Sunday when I am particularly busy, but I give 
a good deal to the poor, and I never was drunk in 
my life." This man once hired a shrewd old 
Scotchman to build a fence around his pasture, and 
gave him particular directions as to his work. In 
the evening, when the Scotchman came in from 
his labor, the farmer said, "Well, Jack, is the fence 
built, and is it tight and strong?" 

"I cannot say that it is all tight and strong," 
replied the Scotchman, "but it's a good average 
fence, anyhow. If some parts are a little weak, 
others are extra strong. I don't know but I may 
have left a gap here and there, a yard wide or so ; 
but then I have made up for it by doubling the 
number of rails on each side of the gap." 

"What!" cried the farmer, not seeing the point, 
"do you tell me that you have built a fence around 
my lot with weak places in it, and gaps in it? 
Why, you might as well have built no fence at 



» 



58 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

all. Don't you know, man, that such a fence is 
worthless ?" 

"I used to think so," said the dry Scotchman, 
"but I hear you talk so much about averaging 
matters with the Lord that it seems to me we might 
try it with the cattle. If an average fence won't 
do for them I am afraid that an average character 
won't do in the day of judgment." 

I am sure the old Scotchman was right, for it 
only takes one gap to let the stock into the meadow ; 
it only takes one wheel broken in the machinery to 
render a great manufacturing plant inefficient; it 
only takes one rail loose on a railway track to wreck 
a train and put in danger a hundred lives ; it only 
requires that one inch of wire shall be cut to render 
three thousand miles of wire useless. So it only 
requires one sin to let in the flood of evil; it only 
requires one patch on a man's spiritual life to show 
that all is unsafe and not to be trusted. 

But there need not any of us go with patched 
characters, either here or hereafter, for our divine 
Lord is able to cleanse us from all our iniquities, 
to pardon all our sins, and clothe us in the white 
raiment of righteousness. He has again and again 
received the very chief of sinners, and he has never 
failed yet to save any man that has truly come unto 
him. He has taken the most vengeful and vicious 
people on earth and transformed them into the 



NOT A PATCH, BUT A NEW SUIT 59 

most loving and gentle. A missionary in New 
Zealand called all his converts together for a season 
of fellowship, to close with the communion service. 
While they were kneeling around the Lord's table J 
he noticed one man rising from his knees and re- 
turning to his seat, then, after a little while, coming 
back to the place of kneeling. After the service 
was over he asked him the cause of this strange 
conduct. The heathen convert said: "I suddenly 
found myself kneeling beside the man who mur- 
dered my father. I once vowed that if I ever saw 
him I would kill him. All this came over me, and I 
could not bear the sight or the thought. Then, in 
my seat, I seemed to see Christ hanging on the 
cross and to hear him pray for his enemies ; and I 
heard a voice saying in my soul, 'By this shall all 
men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love 
one to another.' I gladly forgave him in my 
heart, and received great peace and blessing." 
And Christ is able to take all the hate out of your 
heart ; to take from you all those evil feelings that 
cause you so much happiness and unrest. 

I do not appeal only to the motive of your own 
good. In behalf of your influence upon others I 
appeal to you to give your heart to Christ and let 
him make the best out of you. It may be that some 
of you have little children who are looking to you 
for an example. They may be your own children 



J 



60 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

or the children of your friends ; but they look up to 
you and are influenced by your life. 

An influential woman, the wife of a prominent 
lawyer, gave this account of her conversion : 

"My little girl came to me and said, 'Mamma, 
are you a Christian ?' 

" 'No, Fannie, I am not.' 

"She turned and went away, and as she walked 
off I heard her say, 'Well, if mamma isn't a Chris- 
tian I don't want to be one.' " 

That went straight to the mother's heart, and 
she lost no time in giving her heart to Christ and 
putting her life where her child could safely fol- 
low. O, in God's name I plead with you to take the 
safe path ! Don't let some one you love stand in 
the judgment and say, "If you had only used the 
right influence I would have been saved." 

But I not only plead for your influence over 
others, I plead for you to come to Christ because 
of the debt of gratitude you owe to him for his life 
and death given for you. One of our leading 
magazines gives this little story of an old man who 
is a puddier in a foundry in one of our cities and 
earns good wages. Twenty years ago the wife and 
mother died, and a little daughter of five became 
the old man's pet. Twelve years ago he sold all 
his property and spent his money in sending her 
abroad to study music. She came back two years 



NOT A PATCH, BUT A NEW SUIT 61 

ago, a fine singer and a matchless beauty, and re- 
fused to own her father. But the heart-broken old 
father has not turned against her, even though she 
has so richly deserved it. For he has moved into 
cheap quarters, and lives very niggardly himself, 
that he may have the more to send to her every 
week, though she neither sees nor writes to him. 
What an ungrateful wretch that girl seems to us ! It 
made my blood tingle to my finger-tips with indig- 
nation when I read of such base ingratitude. And 
then my eyes filled with tears as I reflected that 
that is just the way multitudes are treating Jesus 
Christ, who came down to earth, putting aside the 
glory of heaven, and died for them on the cross that 
they might be saved. O, if you are standing in 
that place of ingratitude to-night, I entreat you 
do not stand there one more night. Come to Christ, 
repent of the years of ingratitude you have passed, 
and, entreating his forgiveness, find this night the 
joys of salvation. You may go to your homes this 
evening with your heart flooded with "the peace of 
God, which passeth all understanding." 



VI 

THE GREAT PHYSICIAN 

Tliey that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.— 
Matthew ix, 12. 

The Bible always treats sin as an invader which 
has come in from the devil's country. There is no 
sin in the normal, healthy condition of a human 
heart. Sin comes into our lives as does a disease, 
which fastens on the organs of the system and unless 
cast out preys and ravages there until we are de- 
stroyed. Sin comes when we give rein to qualities 
which, though good in themselves, when they be- 
come master instead of God bring us into folly and 
rebellion. Eve was led away when she listened to 
the serpent instead of to God. St. James describes 
to us the evolution of sin: "Let no man say," he 
says, "when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: 
for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempt- 
eth he any man : but every man is tempted, when he 
is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then 
when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin : and 
sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." 

Christ comes as the Great Physician to heal the 
heart and soul of man from this worst of all mala- 
dies, the disease of sin. In the long story of the 



THE GREAT PHYSICIAN 63 

human race there have been many physicians who 
have tried to prescribe for the sinner, but all have 
failed except Jesus. 

At the World's Fair, in Chicago, in 1893, there 
were gathered together, in what was called the 
Parliament of Religions, representatives from all 
the great peoples of the world and from all the 
religions of the earth, and each one sought to pre- 
sent a physician who might cure the deadly disease 
of sin. The meeting went on for two days and at 
the close of a debate Dr. Barrows, who was in 
charge, turned to Bishop Arnett, a colored minister 
from the Southland, and said, "Bishop, what do 
you think about the model men of the world as 
compared with Jesus Christ?" And the good 
bishop said, "I feel like singing the old Methodist 

nymn: 'Jesus! the name high over all, 
In hell, or earth, or sky; 
Angels and men before it fall, 
And devils fear and fly.' " 

Then Dr. Joseph Cook, who has recently gone 
home to heaven, said, speaking of the great cer- 
tainties of religion, "Lady Macbeth hath blood 
stains on her hands," and he asked the representa- 
tives of each religion what they could do to remove 
those stains. He waited for an answer, and at 
last solemnly and with tremendous emphasis, which 
no man there present will ever forget, exclaimed, 



64 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

"Nothing but the blood of Jesus !" The vast audi- 
ence broke forth into applause — a reverent, rap- 
turous applause — agreeing that there is nothing 
that can remove the stain of a guilty conscience, 
nothing that can heal the soul that is sick of sin, 
but the blood of Jesus Christ. 

Christ is the one Great Physician able to heal not 
only the malady of sin, but to keep the soul in per- 
fect health. He alone knows how to fill all the 
longings and aspirations of the human heart. 
There is an old poem in which the writer gives most 
beautiful expression to this thought: 

"As pants the wearied hart for cooling streams; 
As thirsts the traveler o'er the burning sand 
For the refreshing shade and living spring; 
As sighs the exile for the loved embrace 
Of sire and mother-home and kindred dear, 
So pants and sighs, O God, this heart of mine, 
For thee and purity. 

In vain the world, 
Bedecked with fashion's gaudy tinselry, 
With winning smile, invites my laboring heart 
To join her feasts of mirth to find content. 
Ambition, too, has tried her artful wiles 
To still with worldly hopes this yearning cry — 
But all in vain. All earthly hopes are lost, 
Are swallowed up by this deep soul desire. 
All earthly happiness I count but dross, 
And willingly, while still the earnest cry 
And craving of my heart is holiness. 
Why is this inward thirst, my Father, why 
This deep, intense desire for purity; 



THE GREAT PHYSICIAN 65 

This constant yearning cry of soul, 'Create 

In me, O God, a clean, a holy heart/ 

If in that fount for rebel sinners oped 

I seek in vain for grace to purify? 

Thou'st told me in thy word, 'The blood of Christ 

His Son doth cleanse from all unrighteousness.' 

O hast thou in thy word and promise failed, 

Or failed in power? Hast thou, my God, inspired 

Within this soul of mine a bitter thirst, 

With naught to satisfy; a longing for 

A good thou canst or wilt not grant? 

My heart, the impious thought. It cannot be — 

That blood for thee on Calvary's summit shed 

Is full to-day, and free and powerful, all 

To save, e'en to the uttermost, the soul 

That comes with faith to lave beneath its flood, 

In whom of old, a Peter, Paul, or John 

Were 'cleansed,' made free by its all-healing power. 

Take then, my soul, by humble faith the gift, 

The blood-bought gift; no longer doubt its power 

Or slight his love, but yield to him at once 

Thine all, a willing, holy sacrifice. 

So shall thy joy increase, and brighter far 

Shall grow the light that shines along thy way, 

Till in that land above, where all is love, 

And joy, and purity, thy light is lost 

In heaven's eternal day." 

During Christ's life on earth he was a Physician 
of both body and soul. There was no sickness of 
the body, no disease of the mind, no ache of the 
heart but Jesus could make it whole. Christ had 
only to appeal to what he did as evidence of his 
mission. When John had been cast into prison, 
and, shut in by the four prison walls, grew lonely 



66 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

and depressed and wondered whether Christ were 
indeed the true Messiah or not, he told some of his 
friends one day when they came to visit him in the 
prison, "Go, and see Jesus, and ask him if he is 
indeed the Messiah, or whether we shall still look 
for another?" These friends of John went on a 
day when there was a great gathering of the peo- 
ple to hear Jesus, and still more sick people who 
had either come or been brought by their friends 
that they might be healed. And when John's 
friends put to Christ the question of their leader, 
"Art thou he that should come, or do we look for 
another?" Christ turned about, and looked at the 
great throng surrounding them, and said, kindly: 
"Go and tell John the things you have seen and 
heard to-day. Ask these men and women what has 
happened to them. Look at that pile of crutches 
there, talk with the people who brought them. 
Look at those beds that were carried here with a man 
at each corner that are now laid aside as unneces- 
sary. Look at that little girl over there standing 
by her father, the distinguished-looking ruler in 
the uniform of authority. He came to me one 
day in great haste, and thought his daughter was 
dying, and even while I talked to him the servants 
came and told him that she was dead. I told him 
not to worry, that she was not dead, but sleeping, 
and they all laughed at me with scorn ; but I went 



THE GREAT PHYSICIAN 67 

into the room and took her by the hand, and she 
arose alive, and see how well and strong she is to- 
day. See that man over there gesticulating to an 
acquaintance with whom he is talking. He is 
telling a man how his hand was palsied, and that 
when he met me I caused him to stretch it forth 
and it became whole. Look at that man who 
seems to be gazing up at something in the sky in a 
rapture of delight. That is a young man who was 
blind, and I opened his eyes. Go tell John the 
things you have seen and heard, that his heart may 
be comforted." 

Now, Jesus, who was able to heal the maladies 
of men while he was here on earth, has not lost his 
power. He can still speak to the demon-possessed 
soul and set it free. He can still forgive sins, and 
cast out anger, and hate, and viciousness of spirit, 
and make men loving and cheerful and glad. He 
is the Great Physician of the soul. Give him a 
chance to heal thine. Christ wrought no miracles 
while he was here on earth more wonderful than 
the miracles of soul-healing which he is working 
now. 

In a certain dychouse, where there were a num- 
ber of workmen who were very wicked, the foremost 
one in their wickedness was brought under the 
influence of some earnest revival meetings and con- 
verted. Two of his friends among the workmen 



68 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

were so struck by the change that for a time they 
tried to act just as he did, and succeeded very well. 
The ridicule and scorn of the rest were, however, 
too strong for them, and they turned back to their 
old ways, while John, the real convert, clung close 
to Christ and stood firm as a rock. John did not 
say much, but he answered scoffs and ridicule by a 
consistent Christian life. One day, however, when his 
associates were boasting what good infidelity could 
do, and how much harm the Bible had done, his 
soul was stirred within him ; he turned around, and 
said, feelingly but firmly : "Well, let us talk plainly 
about this matter, my friends, and judge of the 
tree by the fruit it bears. You call yourselves infi- 
dels. Let us see what your principles do. Now, 
there was Tom and Jem," pointing to the two who 
started out to do right and went back. "You have 
tried your principles on them. When they tried 
to serve Christ they were civil, good-tempered, kind 
husbands and fathers. They were cheerful, hard- 
working, and ready to oblige. What have you 
made them? Look and see. They are cast down 
and cross; their mouths are full of cursing and 
filthiness; they are drunk every week; their chil- 
dren half-clothed; their wives broken-hearted; 
their homes wretched. Now, I have tried Christ, 
and his religion, and what has it done for me ? You 
know well what I used to be. There were none of 



THE GREAT PHYSICIAN 69 

jou who could drink so much, swear so desperately, 
or fight with such recklessness. I had no money, 
no one would trust me. My wife was ill-used ; I was 
ill-humored, hateful, and hating. What has re- 
ligion done for me? Thank God, I am not afraid 
to put it to you. Am I not a happier man than I 
was? Am I not a better workman and a kinder 
companion? Would I once have put up with what 
I now bear from you? I could whip any of you 
as easily now as ever. Why don't I? Do you 
ever hear a foul word from my mouth, or catch me 
at a public house? Go and ask my neighbors if 
I have not altered for the better. Go and ask my 
wife. Let my home bear witness. God be praised, 
here is what Christianity has done for me. There 
is what infidelity has done for Jem and Tom." 
John stopped. The dyers had not a word to say. 
He had used the logic they could not answer, the 
logic of his own experience and life. He had been 
a sick man, sick of the vilest sins, and he had met 
the Great Physician, and he had healed him, and 
he is able to heal you. 

It is always waste of time for us to be special- 
izing our sins, as though there was some aristocracy 
or caste about sin. There is not, any more than 
there is about consumption, or typhoid fever, or 
pneumonia. All sin has death in it. All sin will 
destroy your peace of conscience, bring you under 



70 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

condemnation, and cause your banishment from 
God forever. There is only one way to get rid of 
sin, and that is to call in the Great Physician. The 
blood of Jesus Christ, and it alone, has power to 
cleanse us from sin. 

An old blind man was taken to a hospital to die. 
His grandchild, a little girl, went every day to 
read to him. One day she was reading in the New 
Testament, and came to the words, "And the blood 
of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 
The old man raised himself up, and stopped the 
little girl, saying, with great earnestness: "Is that 
there, my dear?" 

"Yes, grandpa." 

"Then read it to me again — I never heard it 
before." 

She read it again. 

"You are quite sure that it is there?" 

"Yes, quite sure, grandpa." 

"Then take my hand and lay my finger on the 
passage, for I want to feel it." 

She took the old blind man's hand, and placed his 
bony finger on the verse, when he said, "Now, read 
it to me again." 

With a soft, sweet voice, she read, "And the blood 
of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 

"You are quite sure that it is there?" 

"Yes, quite sure, grandpa." 



THE GREAT PHYSICIAN 71 

"Then if anyone should ask how I died, tell them 
I died in the faith of these words: 'The blood of 
Jesus Christ his Son cieanseth us from all sin.' " 

With that the old man passed forever into the 
presence of the Great Physician, who had cleansed 
away his sin and made him pure. 

O my friends, this is an auspicious time to call 
the Great Physician. Jesus is now passing by. 
Others are meeting him and are being healed by 
him of their sins and sorrows. Isaiah says, "Seek 
ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him 
while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, 
and the unrighteous man his thoughts : and let him 
return unto the Lord, and ne will have mercy upon 
him; and to our God, for he will abundantly 
pardon." 

Jesus is near to you now. Obey him, confess 
him, and he will heal and save you. 



VII 

GOOD CHEER FOR THE SINNER 

And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on 
a bed : and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy ; 
Son, be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee.— Matthew ix, 2. 

There is always good cheer where Christ has his 
way. When the disciples were in the storm at 
night, and had given up hope of ever reaching 
land again, Christ came walking to them over the 
rolling waves with his ringing, "Be of good cheer ; 
it is I; be not afraid." The waves were caressed 
into peace, and the stormy winds were stilled, and 
the peaceful stars shone forth in the sky when 
Jesus came. Again, when those same friends were 
oppressed and discouraged at the massing host of 
difficulties that seemed to threaten them with fail- 
ure, Christ's same joyous note of courage rang 
out, "Be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." 
And it is this same encouraging word which Jesus 
utters to this poor palsied man who has been 
brought to him for treatment. Christ has cheer for 
him, not only for the paralysis that has handi- 
capped his control over his body, but in his power 
to free him from the deadlier paralysis that has been 
growing on heart and soul. 



GOOD CHEER FOR THE SINNER 73 

The palsy of the soul is the most terrible thing 
that can come to any of us. To be away from 
God, to be without hope of heaven, to have no real 
fellowship with Jesus Christ our Saviour, and yet 
to be comparatively indifferent about it, to have a 
growing indifference to spiritual things, is the 
saddest and most pitiable disease of sin that can fall 
upon a human heart. I do pray God that he may 
grant us his Spirit, that the word to-night may 
reach whatever sensitive spot there is left in your 
heart, and quicken you to repentance and faith and 
decision ere it is forever too late. 

In the medical records in Paris there is an ac- 
count of a man who was attacked by a creeping 
paralysis. Sight was the first to fail; soon after, 
hearing went ; then, by degrees, taste, smell, touch, 
and the very power of motion. He could breathe, 
he could swallow, he could think, and, strange to 
say, he could speak; that was all. Not the very 
slightest message from without could possibly, it 
seemed, reach his mind; nothing to tell him what 
was near, who was still alive ; the world was utterly 
lost to him, and he all but lost to the world. At 
last, one day, an accident showed that one small 
place on one cheek had its feeling left. It seemed 
a revelation from heaven. By tracing letters on 
that place his wife and children could speak to him ; 
his dark dungeon-wall was pierced. His tongue 



74 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

had never lost its power, and once more he was a 
man among men. Strange this, and true ; a parable 
full of suggestion in our present study. The 
worst kind of paralysis that ever strikes any man 
or woman is that of the heart and conscience. 
There never was a man with no affections and no 
sense of right and wrong ; but I doubt not I speak 
to some this evening who are conscious of a very 
remarkable change as to the sensitiveness of con- 
science as the years have gone on. You can recall 
deeds that are contrary to God's will as plainly 
expressed in the Bible that once you could not have 
permitted without the keenest rebuke from your 
conscience; but now you break the law of God at 
that point with almost complete indifference. 
Gradually you are silencing the voice of God in 
your breast. If you had obeyed your conscience 
from the first it would have remained keenly alive, 
and would have been a perfect monitor to have 
kept you from the dangers of sin ; but because you 
have disregarded it a creeping paralysis is crawling 
upon you. 

I am sure that some of you will recall occasions 
when you were very keenly alert and sensitive to 
the duty of becoming a Christian. You were 
drawn with a strange power toward the open con- 
fession and service of Jesus Christ. But some 
secret sin, some love of the world, something, held 



GOOD CHEER FOR THE SINNER 75 

you back and, though knowing your duty, you did 
not do it, and never since then have those spiritual 
impressions been so clear as at that time. My 
friends, all this does not mean that God's word has 
changed. Sin is still sin, and the wages of sin is 
death, just as it used to be. But you have grieved 
the Spirit of God until a deadly paralysis of the 
spiritual perception, of the conscience, and of the 
will is creeping over the powers of your soul. I 
pray God that the Holy Spirit may find the one 
sensitive point that is left yet, and may communicate 
from heaven with your heart to-night ! 

It is never sin, but a lack of willingness to for- 
sake sin and accept the forgiveness and good cheer 
which Jesus brings, that keeps the sinner from 
Christ. Christ is able to save the chief of sinners, 
and whenever the heart will respond to him any 
sinner may be forgiven. 

A Sunday school teacher in a large city had a 
class of girls. One of them was a singularly inter- 
esting girl, only sixteen years of age, the only 
daughter of a widowed mother. One Sunday she 
was missing from her class. Upon inquiry at home 
he found that Mary had been lured from her 
mother's house by some wretch who had taken her 
away, and no trace remained whereby they could 
ascertain where she was. The Sunday school 
teacher used every exertion to discover her, but in 



76 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

vain. At last, after several months, he received 
intelligence that the poor girl had been abandoned 
by her deceiver, and that she was slowly dying in 
a miserable garret. He went to her mother, and 
asked if she had anything belonging to Mary in 
her possession. The mother drew herself up and, 
with a frown, charged him never to mention Mary's 
name again in her presence. Still he persevered, 
and at last she went to a press, took out a little 
Bible, and said, "There's her Bible — take it ; let me 
never hear her name mentioned again." He took 
up the little Bible — many a passage was marked in 
it — and went out. 

After a couple of hours he found himself ascend- 
ing the stairs which led to a squalid garret. There, 
crouched over the embers of a half-consumed fire, 
he saw the poor girl of whom he was in search. She 
turned around at the noise of the opening door. A 
bright hectic flush was on either cheek. There was 
a hollow cough and a startled cry of shame and 
terror. 

He went forward. "Mary," he said, "do you 
know this book ?" 

"O!" she screamed, "my Sunday school Bible!" 
She buried her pale, thin, emaciated face in her 
worn hands and wept violently. 

"Put on your shawl," he said, "and come along 
with me." 



GOOD CHEER FOR THE SINNER 77 

She obeyed as though walking in a dream, fol- 
lowed him down the stairs into a cab, and they drove 
back to her mother's cottage. Mary said nothing, 
but lay back in the corner as though she had 
fainted. At last she started. "Where are you tak- 
ing me?" she cried. 

They stopped before the mother's door. The 
teacher took the half-fainting girl in his arms and 
bore her inside. The mother was standing before 
the grate as though changed to stone. The poor, 
wretched girl tottered feebly forward and fell upon 
her knees. 

"O mother, can you forgive me?" 

A wild, fierce gleam shot from her mother's eyes, 
but it was followed by a holy, sweet, compassion- 
ate, yearning look of love. She rushed forward, 
and the next moment poor Mary was clasped in her 
mother's arms. The faithful teacher turned away 
without a word. 

A few days later a letter reached him. It was 
blotted over with frequent tears. It said : "Mary is 
dead ; but ere she died she whispered to me, 'Moth- 
er, tell him, my Sunday school teacher, who, under 
God, has saved my soul, tell him whom the Good 
Shepherd sent after me to find me, that my last dy- 
ing words were, "I, the poor lost one, washed in my 
precious Saviour's blood from all my sins, and robed 
in his everlasting robe of righteousness — that I, 



78 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

poor castaway, through his wondrous love, with dy- 
ing breath cry, 

Salvation! O the joyful sound! 

What pleasure to my ears! 
A sovereign balm for every wound, 
A cordial for my fears." ' " 

The Christ that brought good cheer to the poor 
man that was smitten with paralysis so that he had 
to be carried to Christ by his friends, and the Christ 
who saved that poor girl in the hour of her despair, 
is able to save you. He will bring good cheer to 
your heart and to your life if you will receive him 
to-night. 

Many whose lives have been so hedged about by 
the church and by the influences of a Christian civ- 
ilization that they have never fallen into shameful 
sin are in just as great danger of being lost at last 
through their failure to avail themselves by direct 
and personal obedience of the salvation purchased 
by the dying love of Jesus. It is strange how the 
children of Christian parents and the associates of 
Christian people, men and women who have had the 
truth pressed home upon their heart again and 
again, will sometimes so close their hearts against 
it that their indifference becomes a dangerous and 
deadly paralysis. If only that indifference could 
be shaken for a moment, so that you could see your 



GOOD CHEER FOR THE SINNER 79 

great need of Christ and of the salvation which he 
offers, I am sure you would come to him to-night. 

Frank Wraithe was a very fine organist. His 
father had been a devout Christian and had gone 
home to heaven. But Frank, though he played in 
the church, and enjoyed specially the music of the 
church, had grown utterly indifferent to the ques- 
tion of his personal salvation. There was in the 
church a man known as Bobby Turner. He was a 
quaint old man, odd and peculiar, but everybody 
loved him, he was so genuinely pervaded with the 
Spirit of Christ. One day the organist came into 
the organ gallery late in the evening, when it was 
dark, for a piece of music he had forgotten, and 
while there he became conscious that some one else 
was in the church below him. Bobby Turner was 
praying. He was talking to God as though he were 
sitting close at hand. In a moment Frank Wraithe 
was trembling, for he recognized that the old man 
was telling the Lord about him. 

"And now, my Father," the old man was saying, 
"there's that other matter I mentioned to thee this 
morning. I was telling thee about Mister Frank, 
and begging thee to get him saved. Thou hast his 
father up there beside thee, and he'll have told thee 
about the lad. I fear my friend John will not have 
realized all that he hoped he would. Him and me 
used to sing together : 



80 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

«* 
'And when I lose this stammering tongue 
I'll sing as loud as they.' 

He'll have lost the stammering tongue, but he'll 
stammer when he thinks of Mister Frank. He's a 
grand lad is Mister Frank, my Father, and a bonny 
good musician, and a rare good lad to his mother. 
He just wants the needful, the one thing, the change 
of heart, the life that Jesus gives. I thought thee 
would have done it before now, but thou'll have some 
good reason for biding a while. My Father, have 
a word with Mister Frank, and get things settled, 
and then the music here will be bad to beat, and my 
friend John will be able to sing without stammer." 

Frank Wraithe was soon on his knees in the dark 
and silent gallery. The simple prayer of his fa- 
ther's friend had opened the flood gates of his mem- 
ory. His father's face was near him, the voice of 
the dead was speaking, the prayers of the past were 
repeated. His spirit's deeps were troubled. He 
had known the holiest influences and been the ob- 
ject of the dearest solicitude. The best within him 
was in the ascendant. Thronging his mind were the 
past reminiscences. He was bathed in tears and 
praying — praying that his sins might be forgiven, 
and for the sense of peace. The good cheer of 
Christ came into his heart, and he went down out 
of that dark gallery with a soul full of light. 

Frank Wraithe went to the class meeting on 



GOOD CHEER FOR THE SINNER 81 

Tuesday night. He had never been there before. 
Bobby Turner looked at him sharply when he en- 
tered. The old man knew not what to think. 
"What's thou want here, Mister Frank?" he asked, 
suspicion in every tone. 

"Do you not want new members ?" Frank replied. 

"The Lord be praised ! Signs and wonders ! My 
friend John will know, and what a time they'll have 
in heaven. Now he'll be singing in style! The 
Lord be praised!" And Bobby Turner was grip- 
ping the organist's hand and shaking it vigorously. 
And we are sure there was joy in heaven, for has not 
Jesus said that there is joy there over one sinner 
that repenteth? 

Will you not add to that heavenly joy to-night by 
obeying the Lord Jesus Christ and accepting all the 
good cheer with which he waits to gladden your 
soul ? 

6 



VIII 

THE GREATEST QUESTION OF EXCHANGE 

For what shall it profit a man, if lie shall gain the whole world, and 
lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his 
soul?— Mark viii, 36, 37. 

I shall never talk on a more important theme, 
and you will never have offered to you for considera- 
tion a subject which has more in it to demand the 
full measure of your power to weigh values and de- 
cide wisely, than the one brought to you in this text 
to-night. However it may seem to you now, the hour 
is coming, swift-winged, on the pinions of passing 
time, when, no matter what else you have gained or 
lost, neither gain nor loss will be of any account 
unless you have made sure of the salvation of your 
soul. 

When the great Gladstone was dying, and the 
young and brilliant and rich and world-famous 
Lord Rosebery came to bid him good-bye, Glad- 
stone said, "Rosebery, look out for your soul," and 
the Grand Old Man died, having looked out for his 
soul. 

When Sir Walter Scott had reached the same 
trying hour he drew Lockhart down to him and 
kissed him, and cried, tearfully, as he said: "Be 



QUESTION OF EXCHANGE 83 

good, my dear, be good. Nothing else counts 
when you come to lie here." Sir Walter Scott had 
known much of gaining the world and of losing it, 
and had learned the great lesson that all other gain 
and loss is insignificant compared to the gain of 
the soul. 

How in contrast to these two cases stands Lord 
Byron ! He was determined to gain the world, to 
win fame and glory. Pie won it, but he lost his 
soul, and in losing it lost even in this world all that 
makes life of value. The poet describes his case 
with graphic sadness : 

"Drank every cup of joy, heard every trump 
Of fame; drank early, deeply drank; drank draughts 
"Which common millions might have drank. Then died 
Of thirst, because there was no more to drink." 

I think that many people in reading this Scrip- 
ture which we are studying, or in listening to a 
discussion about it, make the great mistake of im- 
agining that it is interesting only to people of large 
wealth or great genius who are tempted to strive 
for the vast prizes of fortune. Nothing can be 
farther from the truth than this. The fact is that 
the spirit, the motive, which masters men and 
women and makes them good or bad is exactly the 
same in the poor as in the rich. It is possible for 
one whose salary is very small, and who has but 
little money to handle, to live and die a miser, and it 



84 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

is possible for one who deals with millions to live and 
die in the spirit of a beggar. 

( A most interesting and suggestive story is told 
of Baron Rothschild, of Paris, and his close friend 
Duran, the artist. During the entire course of a 
certain large dinner party the great financier noted 
that the painter kept looking at him with a most 
intent and peculiar expression. After the coffee 
the Baron drew his friend aside and said, "My dear 
fellow, pray tell me why you have stared at me so 
peculiarly this evening?" 

"I'll tell you with pleasure," answered Duran. 
"I am painting a beggar for the Salon, and have 
looked all over Paris for a suitable head to draw 
from. I have finally found it. Yours is the 
ideal." 

Rothschild laughed heartily, and promised to sit 
for his friend in suitable attire on the following 
day. 

During the progress of the sitting a young artist, 
one of Duran's pupils, came into the room. Nat- 
urally he had not been in a position to meet people 
of Baron Rothschild's importance, and so did not 
know him; but the beggar's miserable rags, wan 
face, and wistful expression appealed deeply to the 
young man's sympathies. Waiting until his master 
was busy mixing colors, the poor young artist took 
a franc from his vest pocket and held it out behind 



QUESTION OF EXCHANGE 85 

his back to the model, who seized it with feigned 
avidity. 

The man of millions lived, as had his fathers 
before him, with such an insatiable spirit of greed 
that the lust for money had chiseled his face into a 
perfect type of the common beggar of the street. 
He was the incarnation of greed for money. And 
so it is possible for one to live in very humble sur- 
roundings as well as in very high ones and yet have 
this problem of the exchange of the soul for the 
fleeting values of this world as a question which he 
must settle. 

It is often a question which settles itself by de- 
grees without seriously alarming the man or the 
woman who is, in fact, exchanging immortal values 
for the things of the world. How often is it true 
that one who has been brought up to the Christian 
life, and to whom the reading of the Bible, the daily 
prayer, and the attendance at church have been 
as natural as the air he breathed, has been drawn 
away from it all, not suddenly, but gradually, as 
the world with its temptations and its allurements 
has come in upon him like a flood, until finally 
Christ and prayer and heaven are blotted out and 
the world has possession. ) 

One day a gentleman was riding on a Western 
prairie and lost his way. Clouds arose in the sky, 
and not seeing the sun he quite lost his reckoning. 



86 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

Night came on, and as he knew not which way to 
guide his horse he let him take his own way. By 
and by a light glimmered in the distance, and it 
was not long before the horse stopped before a log 
cabin. 

"Who's there ?" somebody shouted from within. 

"A benighted traveler. Can you give me a 
night's lodging?" 

"You're welcome," said the man, appearing at 
the door. 

The traveler was thankful enough to give up his 
saddle and bridle to the master of the log cabin. 
He found the family at supper, and a place was 
soon made for the stranger. 

Some time in the evening the settler asked, "Are 
you a minister of the Gospel, sir?" 

"No," he answered; and seeing the man looked 
disappointed he asked why he wished to know. 

"O sir," answered the man. "I hoped a minister 
had come to help me build a family altar. I had 
one once, but I lost it coming over the Alleghanies. 
It is a great loss." 

"Perhaps I can help you to build one, though I 
am not a minister," said the gentleman, who always 
had one himself; and after a little more talk the 
man handed him an old family Bible. He read, 
and they all knelt for prayer. The gentleman 
prayed, and then called upon the settler, who, 



QUESTION OF EXCHANGE 87 

greatly moved at this new consecration of his hum- 
ble home to God, poured out his soul in penitence 
and promises of a better life. 

When they rose from their knees the master of 
the log cabin said, "Sir, there is many an immigrant 
who loses his family altar before he gets here — and 
it's a great loss." 

But there are a great many more besides immi- 
grants that lose their family altars. They are lost 
in shops and stores and in politics and in a hundred 
vicissitudes of daily life, and it is an irreparable 
loss, for many a man loses his soul through the loss 
of his secret prayer and his prayer in the family. 

If we are going to be true to our best selves our 
first choice and our real master must be the will of 
God. No man or woman can be truly good if the 
first question asked about any proposed conduct 
is, "What effect will it have on my fortune, or my 
popularity, or my success in a worldly way ?" No, 
the great question must be, "What does God 
desire?" , J 

Once when Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale, ^ 
was at Stockholm the king sent and requested her rS| 
to sing at his palace one Sunday afternoon at some 
sort of court festival. She refused, whereupon the 
king himself called on her and commanded her 
presence. Still she refused. "There is a higher 
King, sir, to whom I owe my first allegiance," she 



• 



88 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

said. In deed and song she always honored the 
One who gave her her marvelous voice. The hom- 
age she received on both sides of the Atlantic, and 
wherever she went, was a literal fulfillment of the 
promise that "Them that honor me I will honor." 

The question comes home to you to-night. 
There is only one way to save the soul, and that 
is through Jesus Christ who died on the cross to 
bring you to God. To reject Christ, to refuse him 
obedience, to count the blood of his covenant an 
unholy thing, to trample under your feet his offer 
of love, is to choose the world and shut the door of 
hope on your own soul. 

And yet some of you are treating this question 
very lightly. You have laughed and said, "It is not 
a question I am interested in." Ah, my friend, that 
laugh may come ringing back in mocking echo to 
you some day when it will sound very differently. 
\ A foolish young man, boasting of his infidelity, 
said, "I will sell to anyone all my interest in Christ 
for five dollars." An old man in the crowd pro- 
duced five dollars, and took from his pocket a piece 
of paper on which he wrote, "I hereby, now and 
forever, sell all my interest in the divine mercy of 
Jesus Christ, and any hope which I may have of 
heaven." 

"Write your name here," said the old man, "and 
the money is yours." 



QUESTION OF EXCHANGE 89 

The young man took the pen and held it for a 
few moments over the paper; hesitated, and, turn- 
ing away, said, emphatically, "I was mistaken; I 
cannot afford to do it." ) 

The thought uppermost in his mind at that time 
was, "What will become of my soul?" He did not 
dare to sign that paper and in so solemn a way 
imperil his salvation. But what folly that he 
should go on, letting all the opportunities and 
privileges of life slip by, while every day his soul 
was in peril. And are not you presuming on the 
mercy of God in the same way ? God's call is now, 
not some time in the future. "To-day if ye will hear 
his voice, harden not your heart!" Don't risk 
your soul another day unsaved ! Make sure of the 
salvation of your soul, and then nothing else will 
count very much. You may be poor or sick in this 
world, but if all eternity is made sure for happiness 
and peace, then your life will have been a tre- 
mendous success. But be you ever so rich, ever so 
successful, ever so famous in this world, if you lose 
your soul, and all eternity is given over to sorrow 
and remorse, then your life has been a stupendous 
failure. Let's make sure of the best things, and 
of the greatest value. Let me close as I began: 
"What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the 
whole world, and lose his own soul ? Or what shall 
a man give in exchange for his soul?" 



IX 

THE YOKE THAT BRINGS REST 

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am 
meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For 
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.— Matthew xi, 28-30. 

Jesus Christ is the only personality in the his- 
tory of mankind who could ever have made a state- 
ment like that and have been taken seriously. 
Think of any other man uttering words of that 
character ! Think over the great men of history — 
Charlemagne, Frederick the Great, Martin Luther, 
Napoleon, Washington. What folly such words 
would be on their lips! There never has lived a 
conqueror or a ruler or a philosopher who dared to 
open his arms to the tired and weary millions of 
earth and promise that if they would come to him he 
would give them rest. 

Dr. Barnardo, who has done so much for the 
stray waifs of London, tells us how the work was 
laid upon his conscience. First he ran across one 
little barefooted, ragged, starving boy, and when 
something in the conversation led him to inquire if 
there were any more like him who had no place to 
sleep, the boy led him along with him, and they 
climbed out on the roof of a wretched building, and 



THE YOKE THAT BRINGS REST 91 

there the little ragged, half-starved fellows were, 
lying around on the sooty roof without any pre- 
tense of a bed or comfort of any kind. The little 
fellow who had led him there was alert to get any 
benefits he might for his companions, and so he 
looked inquiringly into Dr. Barnardo's face and 
asked, "Shall I wake 'em?" "No, no," said the 
puzzled doctor, who did not know what he was 
going to do with the one he had. But Jesus Christ 
is not afraid for you to go forth and awaken all 
the sad and weary and broken-hearted millions of 
earth. You may go to all the men and women who 
have been broken and crushed by sin, and he will 
not stay you, nay, he will urge you on to awaken 
every one of them to a keen sense of their need, for 
he is able to bestow forgiveness and rest on every 
one. 

Christ is the only one who can take a life that has 
been seared and blighted by sin until it has lost its 
hope and courage and fertility, and cause it to send 
forth again new buds of hope and promise. I 
could tell you from my own personal experience in 
winning men and women to Christ of many who were 
so discouraged and disheartened with their own 
failures that life had lost all its beauty and there 
was no longer any desire to live. I have seen again 
and again a man or a woman like that on the very 
verge of suicide, but when I have been able to make 



92 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

him or her believe that Jesus Christ meant all that 
the words suggest when he said, "Come unto me, 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest," a new hope was born in the heart, 
and those same people are now hopeful and cheerful 
and are meeting all the struggle of life with cour- 
age. They have found that Christ told the truth 
when he declared, "My yoke is easy, and my burden 
is light." 

A traveler tells that some years ago, after an 
ascent of Vesuvius, the suggestion was made by a 
reckless member of the party that they make a dash 
across the crater. It so happened that at that time 
the mouth of the volcano was bridged by irregular 
masses of scoria that had fallen back upon each 
other, forming a broken cap through which the 
sulphurous smoke rose in stifling clouds. Wrap- 
ping heavy shawls about their faces, so as to ex- 
clude the suffocating gases, they were soon toiling 
amid the ragged rocks that almost blistered their 
feet, keeping within touch of each other in order to 
render any needed aid. It was a terrible expe- 
rience, and they were all glad to escape alive, and no 
one thought of going back. They started down 
the mountain very soberly and thoughtfully, but 
were astonished in the descent, when just below 
the lofty cone where the smoke and flames were 
being belched forth, to find a violet beside the road, 



THE YOKE THAT BRINGS REST 93 

growing up out of the rotting and decaying lava, 
and a little below, wide-stretching natural gardens 
of them, like a broidered carpet, met them on either 
hand. The chemistry of God's nature had taken 
that scalding lava, so full of death, and by the 
agency of his sunshine and his breath from the sea 
had changed it into the soil that produced these 
violets and a little farther down produced smiling 
vineyards. 

So, my friend, however sin may have hurt you 
and marred you, however your plans may have been 
thwarted and your heart broken with trouble, Jesus 
Christ is inviting you to come to him to-night and 
find rest unto your soul. You remember those 
wonderful words of Paul, "Where sin abounded, 
grace did much more abound." And that shall be 
realized in your case if you will come to Christ with 
all your heart. The joys and hopes and ambitions 
which you have known and lost have been poor 
indeed to the joys and hopes and ambitions and 
achievements which you shall know if you go forth 
from this night in love and fellowship with Jesus — »*-f 

Christ. y\iy^ 

Some of you are suffering from the burdens of \ 
sinful desire and evil habit. Perhaps the one 
thought that makes you pause most doubtfully 
about becoming a Christian is the fear that you 
could not be faithful to your vow. Put that aside 



94 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

entirely. It is not your part of the program to 
keep yourself from sinful desire when you have 
given your heart to Christ. It is only your part 
to obey Christ and to keep yourself in the love of 
God. So long as you trust Christ, and sun your- 
self in his confidence, Christ will keep you. He will 
give you a new heart, full of the new desire and the 
new purpose of righteousness. He will take out of 
your breast the old heart, with its hates and its 
jealousies and all its evil and impure feelings. 

A striking testimony to the perfection of Christ's 
power to do this was borne by a little negro servant 
who waited on the faithful missionary, Moffat. He 
was just a little bit of a black piece of humanity 
that had been picked up out of heathenism, with all 
the hate and viciousness of his heathen life per- 
vading him and clinging to him ; but with the sim- 
plicity of a child he had given his heart to Christ, 
and Jesus transformed his whole nature, and gave 
him perfect rest from the power and dominion of 
sin. One day he came to Moffat in great distress 
because the watchdog had eaten some leaves of his 
Testament, and he was weeping over it. Moffat 
told him it was not so serious a matter as he 
thought ; he could get him another Testament. 

"0, it is not that, massa ; there is more !" 

"Well, what is it?" 

"Well, before I knew anything about that book, 



THE YOKE THAT BRINGS REST 95 

when I hated some one I wanted to kill him; but 
when I got that book into my heart, when a person 
did me wrong, I loved him and prayed for him. I 
am afraid that now the dog has eaten some of that 
book he will love his enemies and let the flock be 
eaten up !" 

Of course it was all wonderfully simple. The 
little fellow did not see the difference between the 
physical eating and the spiritual. But what a clear 
and marvelous illustration of the power of Jesus 
Christ to free an ignorant and sinful soul from the 
tyranny of hate and anger and from all the evil 
powers that had been preying upon it. Christ can 
work that transformation in you. There is not an 
evil habit, there is not a wicked passion that has 
caused you sorrow and sin, but, if you will surrender 
your heart to Christ, he will give you freedom 
from it, and you shall find rest unto your soul. 

But you say, "There is a yoke mentioned in 
the text, and a yoke means work." Yes, but a 
yoke, a harness in which you may work well and 
perform your true purpose in the world, is essen- 
tial to all true living. You surely do not imagine 
that idle people are the happiest people. If so, 
3^ou have made a very great blunder. Of all the 
people in the world, whether rich or poor, high or 
low, the people who arc idle, who do not do any 
good work in the world; who are animated by no 



96 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

great purpose to help their fellow-men; who make 
no effort to do their part in the world's work ; who 
have none of the joy of working together with God 
to make the world a better place in which to live ; 
who have no hand in that divine struggle to cure 
the heartaches of their fellow-men — of all people 
these are the most miserable. 

The ideally happy situation is to have work which 
one may approach and carry with such a spirit and 
in such companionship that one may sing as he 
works. And that is exactly what Christ offers. 
First, he will free you from all the yokes of the 
world. No yoke of sin shall gall your shoulders. 
No burden of iniquity shall press upon your back. 
From all these Christ will set you free and give 
you rest. Then he will show you the work you 
ought to do. He will give you the strength to do 
it. It will be a yoke, but his own neck will be in 
the other end of it. It is his yoke. I was reared 
in the land of oxen, on the frontier in the forests, 
but I never saw a yoke — and I have seen thousands 
of them — that was not made for two. They do 
not work oxen alone. They work in pairs. Christ 
works in the other half of our yoke. We shall pull 
no load where we shall not have his fellowship. 
The yoke will be easy in such company. Love 
makes labor light. Christ will ask you to carry no 
burden that it will not be an honor to carry. I 



THE YOKE THAT BRINGS REST 97 

assure you it is as great a privilege, it is as great 
a joy, to get to wear Christ's yoke and bear Christ's 
burden as it is to get free from the cruel yokes of 
the world and of sin. 

Christ will give to your soul rest from the fear of 
death. Death is the king of terrors to all who are 
not Christians. But if you will give your heart 
completely to Christ he will take away that terror. 
We have had a great illustration during the past 
year of the power of Christ to do that. Perhaps 
during his entire life President McKinley had no 
opportunity to be such an effective witness for Jesus 
Christ, his Saviour and his Lord, as when he came 
to die. Mr. James Creelman, in his book On the 
Great Highway, gives an authorized version of his 
last words. It is one of the most marvelous illustra- 
tions in history of the power of Jesus Christ to give 
perfect rest to the soul in its greatest emergency. 
In the afternoon of his last day on earth the Presi- 
dent began to realize that his life was slipping away 
and that the efforts of science could not save him. 
He asked his family physician to bring the surgeons 
in. One by one the surgeons entered and ap- 
proached the bedside. When they were gathered 
about him the President opened his eyes and said : 

"It is useless, gentlemen; I think we ought to 
have prayer." 

The dying man crossed his hands on his breast 



98 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

and half closed his eyes. There was a beautiful 
smile on his countenance. The surgeons bowed 
their heads. Tears streamed from the eyes of the 
white-clad nurses on either side of the bed. 

"Our Father which art in heaven," said the Pres- 
ident, in a clear, steady voice. 

The lips of the surgeons moved. 

"Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. 
Thy will be done—" 

The sobbing of a nurse disturbed the still air. 
the President opened his eyes and closed them again. 

"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 

A long sigh. The sands of life were running 
swiftly. 

"Give us this day our daily bread ; and forgive us 
our debts as we forgive our debtors ; and lead us not 
into temptation, but deliver us from evil." 

Another silence. The surgeons looked at the 
dying face and the trembling lips. 

"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and 
the glory, forever. Amen." 

"Amen," whispered the surgeons. 

A little later the President was conscious again. 
He asked for his wife. Presently she came to him, 
leaning feebly on the arm of his secretary. As she 
reached the side of her husband and lover — who 
had read to her every day at twilight for years from 
the Bible — she sank into a chair and, leaning her 



THE YOKE THAT BRINGS REST 99 

frail form over the white counterpane, she took his 
hands in hers and kissed them. 

The President's eyes were closed. His breath 
came slowly. As he felt the touch of his wife's lips 
he smiled. It was to be their last meeting on earth. 

"Good-bye ! Good-bye, all." 

Mrs. McKinley gazed into the white face and 
struggled for strength to bear it. 

"It is God's way. His will, not ours, be done." 

The President turned his face slightly toward 
his wife. A look of ineffable love shone in the hag- 
gard features. The ticking of the clock in the next 
room could be heard. Once more the President 
spoke : 

"Nearer, my God, to thee — " 

His soul was on his lips. His face was radiant. 

"E'en though it be a cross — " 

There was a moment of utter silence. 

"That has been my inextinguishable prayer." 

His voice was almost inaudible. 

"It is God's way." 

It was the last thought and the last word of the 
gentle President on earth. He awoke in heaven. 
He had rest. 

What Christ did for President McKinley he will 

do for the humblest and the poorest man or woman 

in the world who trusts him and loves him. Christ 

is no respecter of persons. He has not one kind of 

LLofC. 



100 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

love and tenderness for a president and another 
for a stable-boy or a blacksmith. No, indeed. 
The Carpenter of Nazareth is the same loving 
Saviour, and is ready and able to give the same 
rest of soul to everyone that will come unto him. 



THE GOD WITHIN REACH 

They shall call his name Emmanuel, which heing interpreted is, 
God with us.— Matthew i, 23. 

Christ brought God within reach of human eyes 
and ears and hands. He came and lived with us. 
God's angels sang about him at his birth. God's 
star guided the wise men to his side. He was God 
manifest in the flesh. He was man, so that men and 
women and children were not afraid of him, and 
were drawn to him in tender human love; and yet 
he was God with divine power, so that he healed the 
lepers and opened the ears of the deaf and made the 
blind to see and healed all manner of diseases. He 
lived with us in all our ordinary trials and tempta- 
tions. He tasted of loneliness and homesickness. 
He knew what it was to be poor and hungry and 
tired. He experienced that most bitter of all 
earthly sorrows, the ingratitude and betrayal of 
false friends. He was tempted in all points like as 
we are. He was perfected through suffering. He 
paid the price of suffering to become the perfect 
Captain of our salvation. He did not hold him- 
self aloof from any poverty or suffering or shame 
which we have to bear, and yet he passed through 



102 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

it all without sin. He was with us in God's 
strength and purity and love. He was a God 
within reach when he came to die. He suffered and 
sorrowed like other men. When Judas betrayed 
him he did it with a kiss of pretended friendship 
as he would have betrayed any other man. Christ 
stood before Pilate as a criminal. The soldiers 
crowned him with thorns and spit upon him and 
mocked him as they would the most common man. 
They stripped his shoulders and scourged him till 
the blood ran down over his body like any poor, 
suffering creature. They nailed his hands and his 
feet to the cross just as they did the two thieves 
that were crucified on either side of him. And yet 
it was a God that stood before Pilate, a God who 
suffered on that cross, and the majesty of divine 
love was in him. The majesty of divine power was 
in his words as he said to the dying thief who re- 
pented of his sins and begged forgiveness, "To- 
day shalt thou be with me in paradise." 

Christ's resurrection from the dead did not sep- 
arate him from us and put him beyond our reach. 
His resurrection is the pledge that all who sleep in 
Jesus shall win a similar victory. He is a sample 
sheaf in the heavenly garner. He has not with- 
drawn from us. Stephen, the first man to die for 
his Lord, was permitted to look into heaven, and 
he saw Jesus there interceding for him, and with 



THE GOD WITHIN REACH 103 

perfect confidence he committed his spirit into the 
hands of his Saviour. 

Christ is still a God within reach. He promised 
us before he went away that whatsoever we should 
ask of the Father in his name, with faith believing, 
should be granted to us, and he will keep that 
promise. Christ's is the Supreme Will in the 
universe, and if we keep in touch with him he will 
order our lives for us. Some things among the 
forces of nature in this world God has put into our 
hands, and they obey our will. Steam and the 
electric current obey our will, and do what we say, 
and we have only to go farther up, and appeal to 
the Supreme Will in Jesus Christ, through prayer, 
and all the strength and wisdom and love of God is 
given unto us to the limit of our necessity. 

Dr. O. P. Gifford uses this clear and simple 
illustration: We stand on the corner of the street. 
To the right and to the left stretch the steel tracks 
and the trolley wires. On the corner stand six 
men and women and a little boy. Down the track 
comes a trolley car. The little boy steps out from 
the curb and lifts his finger. What does he ex- 
pect? He expects that trolley car will stop for 
him. Science sneers. She has never seen any- 
thing of that sort. A boy stop a trolley car? 
Certainly. That trolley system was built for the 
boy's sake, and when there are no boys and girls and 



104 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

men and women to stop trolley cars the system rusts 
back again, and the meaning of it all is found in 
the men and women and boys and girls who want 
to stop by the wayside. The boy lifts the silent 
finger, and the car stops. Has he broken any law? 
No. But he has stayed one of the most tremendous 
forces known to our new century, because it was 
organized and built around that boy. He steps 
into the car, and the car spins by. The other men 
and women there do not care for the car. They are 
not going that way. The conductor comes along 
to the boy and asks for a fare. The boy has no 
fare. The car is stopped, he steps out on the street 
to walk. Do you remember the Scripture which 
says, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask 
amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts"? 
You want the light that comes with answered 
prayer without complying with the conditions. 
And the answer is, "Canceled," and you become a 
weary footsore traveler again. But suppose the 
boy pays his fare. He rides on ten blocks. The 
car has filled. He raises his finger, and the car 
stops. Nobody finds fault. It is part of its daily 
routine to stop when a human will lifts its silent 
finger. 

So the entire universe of God was organized 
around man and there is not a force in all the stars 
in their courses, in all the tides from the ebbs and 



THE GOD WITHIN REACH 105 

floods, from center to circumference, in God's 
universe, not a force or a law, that is not under the 
divine will and cannot be used for the furtherance 
of human interests. And when through Jesus 
Christ our Saviour we take hold upon God in 
prayer, we have reached the source of all power. 

I want to urge this message home upon you be- 
cause the one great source of power for us in 
winning souls in these special days of consecration 
to that one object is in God. I feel that there is 
not prayer enough among us. We cannot do this 
work in our own strength. We are by no means 
equal to the task. But if we will all take hold 
upon God, if we will besiege the throne of heavenly 
grace, nothing can stand against us, and multi- 
tudes will be saved. 

The whole story of human history is illuminated 
with incidents of God's direct answer to prayer. 
A poor woman once came to Mr. Spurgeon, accom- 
panied by her neighbors. She was in very deep 
distress. Her husband had fled the country. In 
her sorrow she had gone to hear Mr. Spurgeon 
preach, and something he said in the sermon made 
her think he was personally familiar with her case. 
He had known nothing about her. He had used a 
general illustration that fitted a particular case. 
She told him her story, and a very sad one it was. 
Mr. Spurgeon said, "There is nothing we can do but 



106 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

to kneel down and cry to the Lord for the imme- 
diate conversion of your husband." They knelt 
down, and Mr. Spurgeon led in the prayer that the 
Lord would touch the heart of the deserter, convert 
his soul, and bring him back to his home. When 
they arose from their knees he said to the poor 
woman : "Do not fret about the matter. I feel sure 
that your husband will come home, and that he 
will yet become connected with our church." Some 
months afterward she reappeared, with her neigh- 
bors and a man whom she introduced to Mr. Spur- 
geon as her husband. He had indeed come back, 
and he had returned a converted man. On making 
inquiry and comparing notes they found that the 
very day on which they had prayed for his con- 
version he, being at that time on board a ship far 
away on the sea, stumbled most unexpectedly upon 
a stray copy of one of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons. 
He read it. The truth went to his heart. He re- 
pented and sought the Lord, and as soon as pos- 
sible he returned to his wife, and they both became 
earnest and helpful members of Mr. Spurgeon's 
church. The preacher and the wife and her friends 
had taken hold upon God through Jesus Christ, 
and he had touched that man's heart and brought 
him back. 

A minister in a small town in the interior of New 
York was preaching on the subject of prayer, and 



THE GOD WITHIN REACH 107 

laid special emphasis on mothers' prayers. At the 
close of the sermon, when an invitation was given 
for any to rise who would like to accept Christ, a 
young man arose, back at the door, and cried out 
in terror and anguish: "Some one of you pray for 
me. My mother's prayers are bothering me." 
The young man had gone three times that morning 
past that church door, but had been drawn back by 
some influence he could not account for, and finally 
had to go in. It turned out that on that very 
evening, in Rochester, sixty-eight miles away, the 
young man's mother had been on her knees in a 
mothers' meeting, with a burden of soul crying to 
God for her son. She could not reach her son 
directly, but she reached God, and God reached 
her son's heart with his Spirit. 

A young man here in New York city was deeply 
concerned for the salvation of his father, who lived 
in Massachusetts. One day in the Fulton Street 
prayer meeting his concern for his father's con- 
version became so pungent that he went from the 
prayer meeting and took the Fall River steamer for 
home. He took a stateroom and spent nearly all 
that night wrestling with God, as Jacob did, pray- 
ing for his father. On reaching home the next 
evening he took down the Bible and said, "Father, 
let us read a chapter in the Bible and pray." "Cer- 
tainly," said the father; "you read." After the 



108 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

reading, to the boy's great astonishment and joy, 
his father led in prayer, pouring forth the most 
earnest petitions. 

"Father," said the son, as they rose from their 
knees, "how long is it since God gave you a heart to 
pray ?" 

"I first began last night," replied the father. 
"I was awakened in the night, and cried to God for 
mercy, and he has had mercy upon me." 

But let me give you an incident nearer home. 
On the seventeenth of December I received a letter 
signed by a mother and her daughter telling me of 
their great interest in a son and brother who had 
been very indifferent to Christ and the church. 
They were afraid for me to speak to him for fear 
I would drive him away entirely, but begged that 
I would join with them in prayer for his salvation. 
It was a most earnest letter, and as I read it it 
thrilled me with the deep love and longing and faith 
in God that had prompted it. Most earnestly I 
prayed, as I am sure that mother and sister prayed, 
for the salvation of that man and his wife. What 
was the result? On Christmas night, only eight 
days after the letter was received, and before the 
revival meetings had begun, that son and brother, 
with his wife, asked for prayer in the prayer meet- 
ing, and gave their hearts to Christ. And the first 
night of the revival meetings that young man stood 



THE GOD WITHIN REACH 109 

up beside his mother to bear his happy testimony 
to the power of Jesus Christ to save. 

My friends, as you gather about the communion 
altar do not put Christ afar off, but draw near to 
him in faith, and know that he is a God within 
reach. 



XI 

THE CAST OF THE NET 

And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, 
and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able 
to draw it for the multitude of fishes.— John xxi, 6. 

This little fishing story is full of suggestion. 
These friends had been fishing all night, until they 
were utterly worn out, and had caught nothing. 
Their hearts had been sore and aching before, and 
their minds were perplexed and troubled. It had 
been to get rid of their harassing thoughts and to 
still their aching hearts that Simon Peter had led 
them off on this fishing trip, and now not only do 
their thoughts trouble them and their hearts ache, 
but they are worn out in body as well. But just 
then they saw Jesus on the side of the lake with a 
little fire built on the shore. They did not yet know 
it was the Lord. Suddenly he called to them. 
They listened, and they heard him say, "Children, 
have ye any meat?" And they answered him, 
"No." And again came back the shouted words, 
"Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye 
shall find." 

They did as they were bid, no doubt full of 
wonder; but when the net was full of fishes, so 



THE CAST OF THE NET 111 

many that they could not pull them in, John turned 
and whispered to Peter, "It is the Lord," and Peter 
jumped overboard and swam ashore to see Jesus. 

The disciples always caught fish when Jesus was 
along, and he often used the net and the fisherman's 
calling to illustrate the greater mission of win- 
ning souls and capturing them for him. He prom- 
ised those who were fishermen among his disciples 
that if they would follow him he would make them 
"fishers of men," and he will do that with any man 
or woman who will follow him in humility and 
obedience. 

Now, we are trying in this church to cast the net 
among the people about us, so that we may capture 
immortal souls for our divine Lord, save them from 
their sins here, and bring them to everlasting glory 
in heaven. If we are going to do this we must 
bring them to Jesus. During Christ's own ministry 
men were healed and saved when they came into 
touch with him, and if we are going to save men 
now we must bring them into contact with our 
divine Lord. Kate McNeill, an English singer, 
gives us a simple but very beautiful little poem 
which clearly brings out this mighty truth : 

"How long, O Jesus, shall we keep 
Our palsied from thy power away! 

When shall our lame take freedom's leap, 
Our darkened see thy day? 



112 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

"Have we been healed to stand so calm, 
In all our dignity and doubt, 

Between the bruised and the balm, 
And never bring them out? 

"We dry no tear, no sickness cure — 
Pull no infernal fortress down; 

We bring no bounty to the poor, 
No gem to Jesus' crown. 

"Thy Gospel tells of those who brought 
Their helpless, hopeless ones to thee; 

O, by those early Christians taught, 
May we 'believe to see.' 

"They said, 'Enough of vigils vain! 

We'll call a halt to dead routine! 
Our poor demoniac shall be sane, 

Our leper shall be clean, 

" 'Our cripple shall not need his crutch, 
Our dumb shall sing, our deaf shall hear, 

For Christ can heal them by a touch, 
And we will bring them near.' 

"Lord, give us back the passion flame 
That burned in thy disciples then, 

For glory to thy precious name, 
And life to dying men! 

"Until the scoffer be compelled 
The bare right arm of God to see, 

And slaves, in nameless bondage held, 
Go forth forever free. 

"Our lapsed have baffled all our skill, 
No mortal aid the need can meet; 

O Jesus Christ! All-powerful still! 
We bring them to thy feet." 



THE CAST OF THE NET US 

When Jesus was here on earth in human form, 
as well as now, men and women were usually won 
personally. The glory of a revival of religion is 
that it arouses a large number of people to go out 
personally with the hand net, and talk with men and 
women about Jesus, and bring them into contact 
with him; and then, as these people come to the 
church and listen to the word, the preacher is 
able to cast the larger net in obedience to the 
Master's command. No work we can do is so great 
and glorious as this. 

The late President Harrison was a profound 
student of the Bible. He was, too, an earnest 
member of the Presbyterian Church and an active 
Sunday school worker. Among the attendants at 
his Sunday school was a young man who was em- 
ployed as a clerk in an Indianapolis store. This 
was in 1881, during the session of the Legislature 
in which General Harrison was a candidate for the 
United States Senate. On account of the uncertain 
complexion of the Senate at that time, the Indiana 
contest was one of national interest; the days and 
nights were occupied with planning and cam- 
paigning, and every moment of General Harri- 
son's time was demanded by his supporters. 
Inquiries for him were constant. He left one 
conference only to be drawn into another. 

One Sunday, at the conclusion of the regular 

8 



114 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

service, a member of Mr. Harrison's church ap- 
proached the young clerk and invited him to join 
the church membership. The young man replied 
that he could not formally affiliate himself with any 
church because, though he believed the Scriptures 
in a general way, he was still perplexed on a num- 
ber of points. In that condition of mind he could 
not conscientiously join a church. This conversa- 
tion was overheard by General Harrison. 

The general quietly ascertained where the young 
man lived, and on the next evening called at his 
boarding house. The landlady, who recognized 
him, was surprised and awed, and replied to an 
inquiry if the young man were at home that he was. 
She invited the general into the parlor, but he said 
that he would rather meet the young man in his 
own room. 

He was conducted to a small rear room on the 
upper floor, and when the young man opened the 
door in answer to the landlady's knock and saw 
General Harrison he said, as he was wont afterward 
to express it, that he might have been knocked down 
by a feather. Though he had long admired Mr. 
Harrison at a distance and had become accustomed 
to seeing him at church, he had never spoken to him. 
and had not imagined that the general was even 
aware of his existence. 

Mr. Harrison sat down, and with an unwontedly 



THE CAST OF THE NET 115 



cordial manner at once set the young man at his 
ease. He told him that he had overheard his ex- 
pression of doubts regarding the Scriptures, and 
said : "Now, I am a much older man than you. I 
have for years been a student of the Bible, and per- 
haps I may be able to throw some light upon the 
points which you do not understand. I hope, too, 
that you will not look upon my visit as an intrusion." 

Having inquired as to what points were doubtful, 
General Harrison proceeded to invest them with a 
clear and definite meaning, and then entered upon 
an elaborate and masterful exposition of the basic 
truths of the Scriptures. At length the talk drew 
to a close, and Mr. Harrison looked at his watch. 
"Why, how late it is !" he said. 

It was two o'clock in the morning, and he had 
talked with the young man for seven hours. 

Thus, at a time when his political future was in 
the balance, and when political workers were con- 
stantly looking for him, he spent hours in sowing 
the spiritual seed in a field accidentally pointed out. 
But he won the young man to an immediate decision 
for Christ. 

No doubt there might be a hundred influential 
men and women brought to Christ within the next 
ten days by the members of this church if only we 
could be made to see with clear eyes our duty and 
be anointed of the Holy Spirit for this service. 



116 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

Many men and women who are successful and well- 
to-do in business and isocial affairs have lonely 
hearts, and consciences which are ill at ease, and 
hours when they are filled with inexpressible longing 
for the peace of God. O, if we could only each one 
of us use our hand net in Christ's dear name to 
catch such souls for him ! 

Dr. George F. Pentecost says he once ventured 
to speak to a very great man on religious matters, 
and ask him if he were a Christian; but he did so 
with some trepidation, not knowing how the man 
would receive it. At the close of the talk that 
ensued the doctor expressed the hope that the man 
had not considered him impertinent. The answer 
was a warm grasp of the hand, as the distinguished 
man said : "Don't ever hesitate to speak to any man 
about his soul. I have been longing for twenty 
years to have some Christian speak to me." And 
he continued : "I believe there are thousands of men 
in this city who are in the same condition that I am, 
carrying an uneasy conscience and a great burden 
on their souls; not courageous enough to seek 
instruction, yet willing to receive it. 

But if that is true of those who are supported 
and bulwarked about in many ways to their com- 
fort, how much more is it true of those who are in 
adversity, who are weighed down by misfortune 
and sorrow ! 



THE CAST OF THE NET 117 

Last summer a man came to this church in great 
discouragement and despair. He had been in the 
hospital, and came out of it weak and depressed, 
with unpresentable clothing, and no money. He 
came and saw Mrs. Low, our parish visitor. That 
white-haired saint had a conversation with him. 
He said, "You do not give money, I know that ; but 
if I could only be cleaned up a little, so that I 
could make a decent showing, I think I could get 
something to do." She went into her supply 
closet and found some clothes. Then she took him 
to a barber and arranged that he should have a 
bath and be shaved. When he came out, respect- 
ably clothed and with a clean face, she took him to a 
restaurant and gave him his dinner. During all 
her conversation with him you may well believe she 
had let no opportunity slip to put in an occasional 
word about her Lord. With all her motherly ten- 
derness she told him about Jesus. He could not 
be vexed with her ; she was too kind to him for that ; 
and he could not doubt her, because he saw Jesus in 
her eyes and face. 

After he had had his meal he thanked her and 
went down town to get work. Two or three days 
later he came up on purpose to tell her that he had 
gotten work temporarily, and was getting along all 
right. Again she pointed him to Christ, and he 
went away. She heard nothing more from him 



118 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

till last Christmas, and then there came from him. 
from a town in the West, a handsome present to the 
white-haired Christian woman who had been so good 
to him last summer, and with it a beautiful letter in 
which he told how he had found steady employment 
and was now comfortably situated. But better 
than all, he was happy to tell her that he had found 
Christ as a personal Saviour, and that he was living 
a happy and, he hoped, a useful Christian life. He 
assured her that he owed his salvation to her kind- 
ness to him and the faithful words she had spoken 
to him about Christ. 

My dear friends, the opportunities of casting a 
net for Jesus are all around us when we are ready 
to work in harmony with our Lord. Christ expects 
us to help him in the salvation of the souls for whom 
we are praying. We must help to answer our own 
prayers. 

During a certain revival a man became very 
earnest in his desire for the conversion of one of his 
neighbors. He prayed for him again and again. 
There was one expression which he often repeated. 
It was this: "O Lord, touch that man with thy 
finger ; touch him with thy finger, Lord !" 

The petition was repeated with great earnestness, 
when something said to him: "Thou art the finger 
of God ! Hast thou ever touched this thy neighbor ? 
Hast thou ever spoken a single word to him on the 



THE CAST OF THE NET 119 

question of salvation? Go thou, and touch that 
man, and thy prayer shall be answered." 

It was a voice from the very throne of God. The 
man arose from his knees, self -condemned. He had 
known his neighbor as a man without God and with- 
out hope in Christ for a quarter of a century, yet 
had uttered not a word of warning. Hundreds of 
opportunities had come and gone, but the supreme 
question of life had been set aside for such topics 
as the weather, the latest news, politics, and busi- 
ness. His first and supreme duty as a Christian 
had been left undone. 

God help me to press this home upon your heart. 
Are you doing your duty as a personal friend of 
Jesus Christ toward the people whom you know 
and whom you meet in business and social rela- 
tions? God help you that you may not forget to 
cast the net that shall save them for heaven ! 



N?V 



XII 

THE HOUSE-CLEANING OF THE SOUL 

hen the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through 
dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will 
return into my house from whence I came out ; and when he is come, 
he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh 
with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they 
enter in and dwell there : and the last state of that man is worse than 
the first.— Matthew xii, 43-45. 

The message of this text is very clear. It is 
this : Reformation is an empty thing, only tempting 
every vagrant spirit of sin, unless the heart is gar- 
risoned by the divine Presence and given to pos- 
itive, earnest deeds of righteousness. As the new 
year has opened many of you have promised your- 
selves that your life shall be truer and cleaner and 
braver than in the year that has passed. You have 
swept it clean in your purpose, and have garnished 
it with new resolutions ; but all this will end in mis- 
erable failure unless you open }^our heart to God 
and invite Jesus Christ to come and dwell as the 
dominating guest in your soul. 

I want to impress upon you that it is a great deal 
easier to do entirely right, to live a thoroughly con- 
secrated Christian life, than to live a life just 
moderately good. I have heard a great many 
promises by people that they intended to do better, 



HOUSE-CLEANING OF THE SOUL 121 

and I frankly confess to you I have never known 
anyone yet to keep that kind of a promise. The 
fact is, it is not good enough to be kept. There is 
not enough in it to stir the soul of a man and make 
him do his best. But I have known thousands to 
be transformed under the decision, "God helping 
me, I will be a Christian!" When you are ready 
to go the whole length of the journey between sin 
and the mercy seat ; when you are willing to go the 
whole journey from the world to Christ, and fill 
your life with a positive purpose to not only do 
better, but to do right, your life is transformed 
and lifted up into a new realm. 

It is a very common thing to see a man who has 
been caught in the awful meshes of strong drink 
determine to break off that habit. I have written 
hundreds of pledges in the course of my life, for 
as many different men, who have come to me one 
at a time, through the years, and told me stories 
that would break any man's heart. I have written 
out a pledge and seen a man sign it and, lifting his 
hand over his head, with the tears running down his 
cheeks, say through his clinched teeth, "I call God 
to witness that I will die before I break that 
pledge!" And I have seen that very man drunk 
inside of two weeks. Do you think the man didn't 
mean it? Then you do not know men. He did 
mean it as truly and genuinely as ever any man 



122 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

meant anything on earth. Why did he give way ? 
He gave way because that empty house got its 
seven devils again. There was no tenant there. 
He had put nothing in its place. 

I have had so much experience of this sort, and 
have sought to reform so many men and women 
from strong drink simply through their own reso- 
lution or the care and attention of their friends, 
that I have ceased to give a man any encourage- 
ment or to encourage any expectation to hope that 
he can break away from the habit of drunkenness 
unless he is willing not only to break with the one 
sin, but to break with all sin by giving his heart to 
the Lord Jesus Christ. When a man will do that, 
then there is no length I will not go in my sym- 
pathy, in my self-denying service, to save a man 
from the devil of strong drink. For I know that 
that can be done. There has not been a year in 
all the thirty years since, a boy of sixteen, I began 
to preach the Gospel, that I have not known of 
some, and in some years scores, who were utterly 
hopeless and despairing through their bondage to 
strong drink, but were ransomed and redeemed by 
opening their hearts to Jesus Christ and accepting 
him as a divine Saviour. 

Jessie MacGregor saw in the paper a pitiful 
letter entitled "Confessions of a Human Wreck." 
It so stirred her heart that, taking the words of 



HOUSE-CLEANING OF THE SOUL 123 

Christ, "I will give unto him that is athirst of the 
fountain of the water of life freely," she wrote a 
beautiful poem entitled "The Love that Conquers 
Wine:" 

"O God, when the awful, treacherous thirst 

Assails this breast of mine, 
Stand by me, Lord, and pour for me 

The love that conquers wine! 

'Thy love is better than wine!' 

I grasp at the hope divine, 
I stretch my hands for the blessed boon 

That conquers love of wine. 

"0, helpless, horrified, benumbed, 

I slip o'er the steep incline! 
The soul of the drunkard asks to grasp 

The love that conquers wine. 

'Thy love is better than wine,' 

I want that love for mine; 
I want a love that is greater far 

Than thirst for mad'ning wine! 

"I come to thee! Thou dost call the lost; 

That calls for this soul of mine. 
Thou art stronger, Lord, than sin and woe — 

Jesus, make me thine. 

'Thy love is better than wine!' 
Let me my thirst resign. 
I stretch my hands to take the love 
That conquers mad'ning wine. 

"No longer death, but life, sweet life; 

1 taste of the drink divine. 

Thy dripping hands have brought me life 
And the love that conquers wine. 



124 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

'Thy love is better than wine!' 
It conquers sin's design. 
The spell of the bitter cup no more 
O'ercomes this soul of mine. 

"I'll keep on drinking, always drink 

Of the fountain meant for me; 
At morning, noon, in blackest night 

Of haunting tragedy. 

Through every hour that's mine 

I take of the heavenly wine — 
The soul of the drunkard washed of woe 

To revel in grace divine." 

Dr. MacArthur was once called to visit a dying 
woman in a house in a part of a city which was 
resting under grave suspicion as to its moral char- 
acter. He had no sooner entered the house than 
his suspicions were reassured. But here was a 
young woman evidently near death. She was con- 
scious of great guilt, and was earnestly crying 
unto God for mercy. His duty was clear. He 
must point her to Christ as the only hope for lost 
men or women. Never did the Gospel seem more 
suitable to a poor sinner's case than on this occa- 
sion. He read the Scriptures that seemed to offer 
hope to the poor girl, and she listened as though 
they came from the lips of Christ himself. There 
were a number of others in the room. At the side 
of the bed stood a woman in mature life who was 
at the head of this wicked house, and several young 
women who were, like the dying one, members of 



HOUSE-CLEANING OF THE SOUL 125 

the sinful household. There were also two young 
men, who were visitors at the place, and one of 
whom had a special interest in the dying woman. 
Dr. MacArthur said that the charm of the Mas- 
ter's words, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," were 
witnessed as he had never before seen; and the 
other words of Jesus, "He that is without sin 
among you, let him first cast a stone at her ;" and 
the words, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and 
sin no more." And then he read that wonderful 
stor}' of the dinner party in Simon's house, and the 
woman that bathed Christ's feet with her tears and 
wiped them with the hair of her head, and the 
word of the Lord, "Her sins, which are many, are 
forgiven." Then he turned to the great promises 
of salvation, and read, "The blood of Jesus Christ 
cleanseth us from all sin," and followed it with the 
promise, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise 
cast out." 

There followed a wonderful scene. It was an 
illustration of Christ's statement that "the pub- 
licans and the harlots" have often a better chance 
for salvation, since they are not blinded to the fact 
that they are sinners, than self-righteous people 
who are too proud to surrender themselves humbly 
to Jesus. Not only the dying woman, but the 
entire group, tearfully turned to God. 



126 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

Two days afterward the visit was repeated. The 
young woman was then rejoicing in the conscious- 
ness that her sins were forgiven and that Christ 
was her personal Saviour and Lord. She spoke 
gratefully of the blessedness of the forgiveness of 
sin and the loving-kindness of her gracious Re- 
deemer. She exhorted all around her to seek 
Christ, that the past might be forgiven and that 
the future might be lived in purity of heart and 
life. 

The end came a few days later. Dr. MacArthur 
officiated at the funeral. The room was filled with 
men and women of the classes represented on the 
occasion of the first visit. Again he urged upon 
them the necessity of forsaking sin and accepting 
Christ. The closing days of the redeemed woman 
had had a tremendous effect upon her friends, and 
they heard his earnest message as the very truth of 
God. The result was that the woman who was at 
the head of that house was soundly converted and 
received into the fellowship of one of the churches 
of this city, and six others who stood around that 
(deathbed, four women and two men, were converted 
to Christ, turned away from all their sins, and lived 
pure lives. O my friend, you cannot tell me any- 
thing that Jesus Christ has done for a poor sinner 
so wonderful that I will not believe it. 

And now I come to you and I offer you Christ 



HOUSE-CLEANING OF THE SOUL 127 

as your Saviour. It is a wondrous truth that 
Jesus comes seeking for an opportunity to dwell 
in your heart and garrison your soul against every 
evil that may come against you. It would seem 
that you ought to be seeking him instead of his 
seeking you; but in boundless love he seeks you. 
He comes and knocks at the door of your heart. 
Will you let him in? How tenderly Mrs. Stowe 
sings of his coming : 

"Knocking, knocking, ever knocking, 

Who is there? 
Tis a Pilgrim, strange and kingly, 

Never such was seen before; 
Ah! sweet soul, for such a wonder 

Undo the door. 

"No! that door is hard to open; 
Hinges rusty, latch is broken, 

Bid him go. 
Wherefore with that knocking dreary 
Scare the sleep from one so weary? 

Say him, No. 

"Knocking, knocking, ever knocking! 

What! Still there? 
O sweet soul, hut once behold him 

With the glory-crowned hair; 
And those eyes, so strange and tender, 

Waiting there; 
Open! Open! Once behold him — 

Him, so fair! 



128 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

"Did she open? Doth she? Will she? 
So, as wondering we behold, 
Grows the picture to a sign, 
Pressed upon your soul and mine; 
For in every breast that liveth 
Is that strange, mysterious door; 
Though forsaken and betangled, 
Ivy-gnarled and weed-bejangled, 
Dusty, rusty, and forgotten — 
There the pierced Hand still knocketh. 
And with ever-patient watching, 
With the sad eyes true and tender, 
With the glory-crowned hair — 
Still a God is waiting there." 

Many of you have been expecting to become 
Christians all your lives, and I doubt not you are 
astonished yourselves that so many years should 
have passed away without your becoming a positive 
and earnest Christian. It is so easy to let oppor- 
tunities slip by. What you need is to be brought 
by God's grace to a decision, and I call you to 
decide now. "Choose you this day whom ye will 
serve!" A decision is a turning point, and if you 
would now decide for Christ and make an open con- 
fession of him it would open a new epoch, a new 
era of divine peace, for your soul. 

An interesting story is told of David Farragut. 
He was a cabin boy to his father, brave George Far- 
ragut, who had taken part in the Revolutionary 
and the Indian wars. The boy was becoming dis- 
sipated. One day the father called David into the 



HOUSE-CLEANING OF THE SOUL 129 

cabin, locked the door, and said to him, "David, 
what do you mean to be?" 

"I mean to follow the sea," he said. 

"Follow the sea!" exclaimed his father. "Yes, 
be a poor, miserable, drunken sailor before the 
mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, and die in 
a fever hospital in some foreign clime !" 

"No, father," the boy replied, "I will tread the 
quarter-deck and command, as you do." 

"No, David; no boy ever trod the quarter-deck 
with such principles as you have and such habits 
as you exhibit. You will have to change your 
whole course of life if you ever become a man." 

His father left him, and went on deck. The boy 
was stunned by the rebuke and overwhelmed with 
mortification. " 'A poor, miserable, drunken sailor 
before the mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, 
and die in some fever hospital!' That's my fate, 
is it? I'll change my life, and I will change it at 
once. I will never utter another oath, never drink 
another drop of intoxicating liquor, and never 
gamble." In later years, when he became the great 
admiral, he said that God had helped him to keep 
the vows made that day. 

Wendell Phillips went home one night, a boy 

fourteen years old, from hearing Lyman Beecher 

preach a sermon that had stirred him to the very 

core. He went to his room and locked the door, 
9 



130 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

and in his passionate earnestness he threw himself 
down flat on his face on the floor, and gave himself 
to God through Jesus Christ. He promised God 
from that hour that he would serve him, and prayed 
God that whatever was right to do he might have 
the strength to do it, and that whatever was wrong 
to do might have no power over him. And that was 
the secret of his strong life. 

And so I come to you to-night, pleading for a 
decision; a life that only drifts always drifts to 
ruin. Decide now for Christ and righteousness and 
heaven ! 



XIII 

THE COMFORTER OF SOULS 

It is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the 
Comforter will not come unto you ; hut if I depart, I will send him 
unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and 
of righteousness, and of judgment.— John xvi, 7, 8. 

The friends to whom Christ spoke these words 
were sadly in need of comfort. They had given up 
all and followed him. True, their "all" had not 
been very much, and yet when a man gives his "all," 
though his little world may be small, it is as much 
to him as is the "all" of the man who deals with the 
largest affairs. Of this little group Christ was the 
center. All their hopes and plans for the future 
rested on him. And now he was going away. 
Slowly but steadily the black cloud was drawing 
near, and they could feel already the cold breath 
of its coming shadow. They could not understand 
as yet the full meaning of it, and their hearts were 
heavy at the thought of separation from the best 
Friend and the noblest Leader any group of men 
had ever had. So these words which I have read for 
our text were given to them as words of comfort. 
Christ tells them that it is better for them that he 
is going away. His mission is to be a world-wide 
mission. If he continued to live in a human body. 



132 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

he could not be with all his disciples at once, but 
when he departs, and goes back to his native 
heaven, he will send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, 
who will always be with them, and whose comforting 
presence need never be withdrawn from their hearts. 
There seems something very strange, and at the 
first glance contradictory, in the statement made 
here by our Lord, that he goes to send the Com- 
forter to them, and then, in the very first sentence 
describing the work of the Comforter, he says he 
will "reprove" the world, convince them of their 
sin, arouse them to righteousness, and keep them 
in mind of the judgment. Those two words, 
"comfort" and "reprove," seem to be words not in 
harmony with each other; and yet the more we 
study them the more certain we shall be that they 
are spoken advisedly and wisely. The only way to 
comfort a man who is wrong is to get him out of his 
wrong position and make him right. If a man is 
living a sinful life the worst enemy he has in the 
world is the man or the woman who would try to 
comfort him in his sins and still leave him to go on 
sinning against God without fear. There can be 
no salvation, there can be no true peace of the soul, 
except through the banishment of sin from the 
heart and the pardon of sin through the acceptance 
of Christ's death in our behalf. Isaiah voices God's 
message to us when he cries : "Peace, peace to him 



THE COMFORTER OF SOULS 133 

that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the 
Lord ; and I will heal him. But the wicked are like 
the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters 
cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith 
my God, to the wicked." 

From this and many other passages, as well as 
from our text, there can be no doubt that the only 
way we may come into the blessed fellowship and 
ministry of the Comforter of souls is by being 
healed of our sins by the Great Physician. As 
Frederick Robertson aptly says, "Peace and cure 
must go together." There is no peace for the soul 
where there is no cure. You may have lulled your 
conscience to sleep for a while, but the slightest 
incident may wake it into all the horrors of remorse 
at any moment if the fact of your sin is still there. 
Herod gave the order that John the Baptist should 
be beheaded. His conscience rebuked him. He 
felt that he had grievously sinned against God. 
But with all a king's resources he threw himself 
into business and pleasure, and I have no doubt 
flattered himself that he would soon forget all about 
it. But one day one of his courtiers said to 
him, "Your majesty, I had a strange experience 
yesterday." 

"Is that so?" said Herod. "What was it?" 
"I was interested at what I had heard of this 
strange young rabbi, whom they call Jesus, and so 



134 THE HEALING OP SOULS 

I went out to one of his meetings. I supposed he 
was a humbug, of course, but I tell you he did some 
wonderful things. I saw them bring a man that 
had the shaking palsy on a bed. There was one 
man at each corner, and they brought him and laid 
him down at the feet of the rabbi. Jesus looked 
at him strangely for a moment, then he took him 
by the hand, and said, 'Arise, take up thy bed, and 
walk.' And that man got up and, after he had 
thanked the rabbi, put his bed over his shoulder 
and walked off. It would have warmed your heart 
to see the happiness of those men who had brought 
him. Then there was a little girl who came leading 
a blind man. A man who stood by me said that 
he knew the man, and that he had been born blind. 
Well, that rabbi spat on the ground in the dust, 
and reached over and made a little clay out of the 
spittle, and put it on the man's eyes, and said 
something — I was too far away to hear what he 
said — and as sure as I live that man's eyes seemed 
as clear and as good as mine. He came back, his 
face all covered with wonder and smiles, and the 
little girl danced around a while, and then shot off 
through the crowd to tell her mother. There were 
lots of other cases, and they tell me that he has 
cured lepers, and that over at the town Nain he 
stopped a funeral procession and brought the son 
of a widow back to life." 



THE COMFORTER OF SOULS 135 

Herod had not been much interested at first, but 
as the story went on it came to have a terrible 
fascination for him. His under jaw dropped; 
his eyes bulged out in horror, and at last he broke 
the story off with a cry of fright as he exclaimed, 
"It is John! It is John the Baptist, whom I be- 
headed! He has risen from the dead!" Herod's 
sin would not down ; time gave him no peace. And 
time will give you no peace. There is no greater 
folly than to think that because you have forgotten 
your sin for a while God has also forgotten it. 
There is a law in this world that sin and sorrow 
shall be joined together. Years may pass by 
between the sin and its punishment, but God does 
not need to hurry. He can wait. God's word 
which I have quoted to you is true, "There is no 
peace, saith my God, to the wicked." 

There is only one thing that can interfere be- 
tween sin and its punishment, and that is pardon 
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The 
one thing that can give peace to the sinner is the 
blood of Christ, so applied to the heart, so cleansing 
the affections of the soul, that the guilty can go 
free and the sinning soul be at peace. 

Sin is forever making strife and discord in the 
world, and the Comforter of souls is forever seek- 
ing to make peace — peace between man and God, 
peace between man and man, peace between sev- 



136 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

ered friends, peace where sin has broken the heart. 
But he can only give peace and comfort by first 
reproving sin and securing the consent of the 
sinner to sin's banishment. 

At a great revival meeting in Detroit, Michigan, 
at a service one afternoon, when the presence of the 
Holy Spirit was keenly felt by hundreds of people, 
a very interesting and remarkable event happened, 
though not many people in the meeting knew about 
it. There was there that afternoon a man who 
had had hard usage, but he listened to the preacher 
with wide-open eyes that were often full of tears. 
Not very far away from him sat a woman in scanty, 
worn attire. There was a pathetic expression in 
her eyes that spoke of hardships and disappoint- 
ment. Among the great throng of people few 
seemed more desolate than she. Dr. J. Wilbur 
Chapman was the preacher. He announced for his 
text the words, "What wilt thou say when he shall 
punish thee?" He began to tell of the day of 
wrath; he emphasized the awfulness of the day of 
judgment, and warned his hearers of the all-per- 
vading presence of God. There was no escaping 
his eye, or the judgment to come. "If you take 
the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost 
parts of the earth, behold, he is there; if you de- 
scend into hell, lo, he is there," rang out the warning 
of the earnest preacher. 



THE COMFORTER OF SOULS 137 

The man whom we have noted was all attention, 
the woman's head was bowed. 

"What will you do in the day of judgment? Do 
you know what it is to pass into eternity?" There 
was a deep hush on the audience as the speaker 
paused. Then he went on to describe the terrors 
of the judgment to the unsaved. He quoted Paul's 
solemn words, "Be not deceived; God is not 
mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap," and said that every man who is mocking 
God knows not the day or the hour when he may 
visit him. 

The worn and weary man of whom I have been 
speaking stared at the preacher with tear-stained 
eyes ; the woman's head was still bowed. 

"The way of the transgressor is hard," said Dr. 
Chapman, in a broken voice. "The day will come, 
my friends, when, if you do not accept this sal- 
vation, God will say to you, 'I never knew you.' " 
A singer began to sing, "Shall I be saved to- 
night?" And as he did so the Holy Spirit seemed 
marvelously to fall upon the people. As the 
singer closed, Dr. Chapman rose again. He asked 
those who had a desire to be prayed for, and were 
willing to accept Christ then and there, to hold up 
their hands. 

Our man whom we have been following had his 
hand up first of all. Then the woman held up her 



138 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

hand, and instantly their eyes met. Then a change 
as sudden came over the expression of both. But 
they only held the secret of its meaning. 

"Those who can say, 'I now confess Jesus Christ 
as my Saviour,' stand up," said Dr. Chapman, and 
the man and woman rose to their feet. 

As the great throng passed out the man and 
the woman met at the door. "Tom," she said, 
then her lips quivered. 

"Mary," he responded, as he dashed away a tear. 
Then their hands met and clasped. 

"You have come home, Tom?" 

"Yes, Mary," and their eyes told the rest. They 
went on arm in arm. It was a husband and wife 
whom sin had separated. Sin had filled their hearts 
with anger and their lives with strife, but now each 
heart had found through faith in Jesus Christ the 
peace and comfort of God that brought them 
together again. 

And that incident is a typical story, for it is a 
true illustration of the way the Comforter of souls 
is able to cure all our sorrows. Get rid of your 
sins. Surrender yourself to Jesus Christ. With 
your sins forgiven all comfort and peace is possible 
to your soul. 



XIV 

LOOSING A SOUL FROM BONDAGE 

And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity 
eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up 
herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto 
her, "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his 
hands on her : and immediately she was made straight, and glorified 
God.— Luke xiii, 11-13. 

This act is fairly typical of the entire ministry 
of Jesus Christ. He always had an eye open for 
people who were crippled or infirm, who were handi- 
capped in any way, and he was quick to stretch 
out the hand of help and give them release from 
the cruel bondage of their infirmity. Sometimes 
it was a blind eye, sometimes a deaf ear, occasionally 
a withered hand; at other times it was a deadly 
leprosy, and again a consuming fever; but the 
particular difficulty made no difference to Jesus, 
for he could remove one just as well as another. 

Christ is still doing that work in the world. He 
is seeking to save men and women and set them free 
from their most cruel and terrible bondage. Here 
was a woman who had been in the grip of this 
awful infirmity for eighteen years. She was bowed 
over so that she could not walk along the street 
without attracting everybody's attention to her 



140 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

crippled condition. Every hour of life was full of 
pain to her. The doctors could do nothing for her, 
and she had long since given up all hope of walking 
straight and upright and graceful like other people, 
and when she went to the synagogue that Sabbath 
she had no expectation of finding any release from 
the bondage of her lifelong infirmity. And then, 
suddenly, the new rabbi, Jesus, looked at her. She 
was startled at something searching and yet infi- 
nitely kind in his glance. 

"Come to me," he said. 

She did not know what to make of it, but she 
went. And when she drew near to him he laid his 
hands on her and, with a voice that was sweeter 
than any music she had ever heard, said, "Woman, 
thou art loosed from thine infirmity." And she 
straightened up; all that cruel stiffness of her 
joints and muscles disappeared, and she was as 
straight as any woman in the synagogue. No 
wonder she glorified God. 

I wish to spiritualize this suggestive story. 
Sin has always had the power to make men crooked 
and infirm in their characters, and Christ is always 
seeking to set them loose from its bondage and make 
them whole again. The strange thing is that many 
people are crooked and bent by sin who do not 
seem to know it. It is often well known to other 
people while they themselves are to a great degree 



LOOSING A SOUL FROM BONDAGE 141 

unconscious of it. Many a man who is not a Chris- 
tian would flee his sins this very night if he could 
only see himself as others see him. 

A drunkard in New Orleans recently was saved 
from continuing his career of dissipation in a 
peculiar manner. The young man in question was 
of a fine family, and had splendid gifts, but was 
going down as fast as it was possible for a man to 
go through strong drink. His friends had pleaded 
with him, but he had taken their warnings as an 
insult. One day one of them, who was a court ste- 
nographer, determined to try a new tack with him. 
He was sitting in a restaurant one evening, when 
the young man in question came in with a compan- 
ion, taking the table next to him, and sitting down 
with his back to him and not seeing him. He was 
just drunk enough to be talkative about his private 
affairs, and on the impulse of the moment the ste- 
nographer pulled out his notebook and took a full 
shorthand report of every word he said. It was 
the usual maudlin folly of a young man with his 
brain muddled by drink, and included a number of 
highly candid details of his daily life — things which 
when he was sober he would as soon have thought 
of putting his hand in the fire as of speaking about 
to a casual acquaintance. The next morning the 
stenographer copied the whole thing neatly, and 
sent it around to his office. In less than ten minutes 



142 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

he came tearing in with, "What is this, anyhow?" 
"It's a stenographic report of your monologue at 
the restaurant last evening," his friend replied, and 
gave him a brief explanation. "Did I really talk 
like that?" he asked, faintly. "I assure you it is an 
absolutely verbatim report," was the reply. He 
turned pale and walked out. He never drank 
another drop. He turned to God in deep and 
humble repentance that very hour. He had caught 
a glimpse of himself. 

Many men would cease not only the sin of drunk- 
enness, but other sins as well, if they could see 
themselves as others see them. Christ sees all our 
imperfections, and they must look more terrible to 
his eyes than they do to the eye of anyone else ; but 
like the mother who hates drunkenness when it ap- 
pears in her son more than anyone else can hate 
it, and yet would gladly die to save her boy, so 
Christ, who did die to save the sinner, does not gaze 
on our infirmities with an eye of disdain or contempt, 
but with an eye filled with infinite pity and love. 

The sinner is like this poor woman in that he has 
no power to heal himself. He is held in the grip of 
sin for which he himself is to blame, but from which 
he has no power to free himself. 

A yacht captain, sailing along the eastern shore 
of Maryland, saw a splendid specimen of the 
American eagle speeding along like the wind over the 



LOOSING A SOUL FROM BONDAGE 143 

surface of the water, yet evidently propelled by no 
effort of its own. In fact, the eagle seemed to be 
using all its efforts to stay its progress and rise 
from the water. The captain turned his yacht, 
headed off the speeding eagle, and succeeded in 
grabbing it by the neck, although the bird fought 
fiercely against him with beak and wings. 

When the captain got hold of the eagle he dis- 
covered why it was taking that strange journey 
against its will. The eagle's talons were so deeply 
buried in the back of a big carp that the bird could 
not get them out. The carp was too heavy for the 
eagle to rise with, and the eagle too much weight, 
for the present, for the carp to sink deeper into the 
water; but the eagle would undoubtedly have been 
drowned with that fatal clutch he himself had made 
if the captain had not interfered by cutting him 
loose and letting him fly away. 

Surely that is a clear illustration of the danger 
and sorrow into which men thrust themselves 
through sin. Men seize hold on vile and evil things 
through the strong talons of their affections, and 
then when they want to get away they cannot. O, 
how hard is the struggle sometimes to escape, and 
all in vain. But there is a way of escape. As that 
captain took his sharp knife and cut the eagle's 
feet loose from that which held him down to danger 
and death, so Christ is ready and willing to lift 



144 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

jour feet out of the mire and the clay of your sin, 
and set them on the rock, and put a new song in 
your mouth, a song of praise and glory to God. 

I am sure that a great many stay away from 
Christ, and delay the open confession of their sins, 
because sin has so blinded their eyes that they do 
not see clearly how terribly real and awful a thing 
it is. Sin gets into our hearts and so masters us 
that we are no longer our own master. Paul says, 
"If I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, 
but sin that dwelleth in me." An English preacher, 
commenting on this statement, says that there are 
men who would have us believe that sin is but the 
necessary offspring of weakness and ignorance, that 
it is the unavoidable failure to reach ideal perfec- 
tion, or that it is the fruit of the insurgent senses 
which will not be controlled. But this passage 
teaches us that it is something more — that it is a 
taint, a corruption, affecting the inner nature, 
warping, marring, darkening all the soul. 

Some people have thought that by cultivating 
the natural powers the sinner might be slowly re- 
fined and purified. But it has always failed. If 
sin were only weakness there might be hope in the 
gospel of development. Some men have pointed to 
education as the moral regenerator, and have 
claimed that if men were all well educated sin would 
die out of the world with ignorance. But that is 



LOOSING A SOUL FROM BONDAGE 145 

disproved by the fact that some of the best-educated 
men that have ever lived have been the most wicked. 
The fact is that sin is a poison in the very blood, 
and no mere appeal to the will can bring about the 
needed change. By merely working on himself, on 
his body of sin and death, the sinner can do but 
little in the way of self -restoration. The will has 
no power to create or re-create. Sin is not merely, 
an act or a series of acts, it is a crippled state like 
that of the poor infirm woman. A man can no more 
by an act of will change his own heart than could 
that infirm woman by an act of will straighten her 
body. 

Now, when a man or a woman sees intelligently 
and clearly sin as it is, there always happens what 
used to be called more frequently than now "con- 
viction for sin." When the Holy Spirit reveals to 
the sinning soul its true condition it is a terrible 
sight. Death, inevitable death, is present to him, 
for the law, stern and unrelenting to eternity, de- 
nounces him. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." 
He has sinned, he is ever sinning, it seems as though 
he must sin; death he cannot escape. Amazed, 
hopeless, agonized, the cry breaks from his lips — 
"O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death ?" And there is silence. 
Not a voice in the wide world is raised to give him 

answer of comfort till there is heard that sweetest 
10 



146 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

voice that ever fell upon a sinner's ears — the voice 
of the sinner's Saviour, the same voice that charmed 
the poor infirm woman, "Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
Every one of you may accept that invitation to- 
night, knowing that Christ will keep his word. On 
one occasion during the civil war, when Mr. Moody 
was acting as chaplain, he was awakened one night 
when he was very tired to go and see a dying soldier. 
When he began to speak to him about God the 
soldier said, "He cannot save me ; I have sinned all 
my life." And Moody began to think of his 
mother a long way off, and he thought probably 
the mother was praying for her boy even then, and 
he sat up through the night, telling him promise 
after promise, praying with him, but nothing would 
avail. At last he read the third chapter of John, 
how Nicodemus came to the Master. As he read he 
noticed that the young fellow's eyes became riveted 
upon him, and he seemed to drink in every syllable. 
When he came to the words, "As Moses lifted up 
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son 
of man be lifted up : that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have eternal life," he stopped 
Mr. Moody, and asked, "Is that true?" "Yes," 
Moody said. "Well," he said, "I never knew that' 
was in the Bible. Read it again." Leaning on 
his elbow on the side of the cot, he drew his hands 



LOOSING A SOUL FROM BONDAGE 147 

together tightly, and when Moody had finished 
reading he said: "That is good! Won't you read 
it again?" Slowly he repeated the passage the 
third time. When he had finished he saw that the 
young soldier's eyes were closed, and the troubled 
expression on his face had given way to a peaceful 
smile. His lips moved, and as Moody bent over 
him to catch what he was saying he heard, in a 
faint whisper, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in 
the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be 
lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have eternal life." He opened his 
eyes and said, "That is enough. Do not read any 
more." The next day Mr. Moody found that he 
had passed away peacefully with the words of that 
promise on his lips. 

You may find your salvation to-night, just as he 
did, by heeding the invitation and promise of Christ. 
He is seeking for you. He sees your infirmities, he 
knows all about your sin ; but, bless God, he is just 
as powerful to save and just as willing to save now 
as ever, and he is still crying out to sinful men and 
women, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise 
cast out !" 



XV 

THE BEST CHOICE 

But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, 
which shall not he taken away from her.— Luke x, 42. 

A member of the English Parliament visited 
Andrew Carnegie in his great castle in Scotland. 
After they had had a long talk together the rich 
man drove with his guest to the station. As they 
went Mr. Carnegie spoke about his wealth and said, 
bitterly : "I am not really to be envied. How can 
my wealth help me? I am sixty years old, and I 
cannot digest my food. I would give you all my 
millions if you could give me youth and health." 
Then there came another remark, which the listener 
declares he will never forget. They had driven on 
for some time in silence, when Mr. Carnegie sud- 
denly turned, and with a hushed voice, and with 
bitterness and depth of feeling quite indescribable, 
said: "If I could make Faust's bargain I would. 
I would gladly sell anything to have half my life 
over again," and his visitor saw his hands clinch as 
he spoke. 

There could not be a clearer illustration than 
that of the worthlessness of mere wealth as a treas- 
ure, so transient is its power to give happiness. 



THE BEST CHOICE 149 

There are so many things that can take it away, 
and even if it remains, as with Mr. Carnegie, youth 
passes, health disappears, and the ministry of wealth 
loses its power to bless. But, thank God, there are 
some things within the reach of us all that cannot 
be taken away. 

Mary of Bethany was one of the few people who 
saw into the heart of the mission of Jesus. Her 
love discerned what stronger intellects could not 
fathom. She accepted Jesus as her Lord and 
crowned him in her heart. Christ said that she had 
made a choice that could never be taken from her, 
and it has been true even for this world, for Mary 
of Bethany is one of the immortals. We see her 
on still another occasion. It is the day that Simon, 
the rich Pharisee, invited Jesus to dine with him. 
And as Simon is treating the Master with a sort of 
patronizing superciliousness Mary of Bethany 
comes into the room. She came unbidden. She 
had brought with her, with which to anoint the head 
of Jesus, an alabaster box of precious ointment, 
very costly indeed. So costly was it that some of 
his own disciples thought it a wasteful thing. But 
Jesus received it with gratitude and love, and he 
said about it, and her, "I say unto you, that where- 
soever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole 
world, then this also that she hath done shall be 
told for a memorial of her." I wonder if it has 



150 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

occurred to you that we have in New York harbor 
a monument to Mary of Bethany? The next time 
you go down the harbor, and you see that grand 
statue, "Liberty Enlightening the World," remem- 
ber that the inscription on its side was uttered by 
Jesus of Nazareth. "She hath done what she 
could" Mary chose immortality for this world 
when she chose Christ ; and far more than that, for 
this world itself will grow old, and be rolled together 
as a scroll, but Mary shall be loved and honored 
by her divine Lord throughout all eternity. 

No other choice we can make will continue to be 
appropriate and useful to us under all circum- 
stances. The changing scenes of life often reduce 
values or take away the value entirely. Certain 
things that are of great importance to us at one 
period of life are looked upon with contempt at 
another period; but if you choose Jesus Christ as 
your Saviour and your Lord, and worship him with 
all your heart, there will not be one day from youth 
to old age that he will not be the source of more 
happiness and inspiration and comfort than all 
the other treasures of life put together. Not 
only so, but as life draws to a close, and as death 
looms up in the distance, Christ will appear the 
more precious and indispensable at the moment all 
other treasures are dropping from your nerveless 
fingers. 



THE BEST CHOICE 151 

In the Kentucky backwoods a young woman lay 
dying on her humble cot. Suddenly she roused and 
called, "Abraham!" 

A boy almost destitute of clothing, who had 
been watching the birds as they flew from one 
tree to another outside the cabin door, hastened 
to her side, and asked in a troubled voice, "What 
is it?" 

She drew him within her feeble arms, and said, 
in a voice weak and tremulous, yet still thrilling with 
a mother's love and hope : 

"I am going to leave you, Abe, and 0, how hard 
it is to part with you! How beautiful it is out- 
doors ! It is beautiful wherever God is, and I am 
going. to meet him in a brighter world than this. 
I learned to love him at the old camp meetings, and 
I want you to learn to love him too. 

"I have not had much to make me happy," 
she continued, still more slowly, and with a heavy 
sigh — "I have not had a great deal to make me 
happy; but my voice has never failed to rise in 
praise whenever a feeling of thanksgiving has come 
to me. 

"Abraham Lincoln, you have my heart. I am 
thankful God gave you to us. Love everybody, 
hinder nobody, and the world will be glad some day 
that you were born. This is a beautiful world to 
the loving and believing. I am grateful for life; 



152 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

for everything, but, more than all else, because you 
have my heart." 

"But he can't sing, Nancy !" 

A tall pioneer in buckskin stood in the cabin 
doorway. He saw death's shadow in the sunlight 
that fell on the floor. He had added a ripple of 
laughter to his words, for he wanted to cheer his 
wife even though she was passing from him. 

The woman was silent. Thomas Lincoln ap- 
proached his wife's deathbed. Then he repeated 
his words, still more kindly : "But he can't sing like 
you, Nancy !" 

"The heart sings in many ways," she replied, 
very feebly. "Some hearts make other hearts sing. 
Abraham may not have my voice, but he has my 
heart, and he may make others sing." 

And so Nancy Lincoln went away, leaving the 
blessing of her pure life and of her loving, grateful 
faith in God as a benediction on the head of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. Surely Nancy Lincoln had chosen, 
like Mary, the treasure that never could be taken 
away from her. If the good in heaven are per- 
mitted to watch over the careers of earth, what 
songs she must have sung during all those years 
when Abraham Lincoln so bravely and with such 
sublime patience, driven again and again to God for 
help, carried the nation's burdens on his shoulders 
and the nation's sorrows in his heart. How much 



THE BEST CHOICE 153 

American civilization and the progress of Chris- 
tianity and humanity in the world owe to the fact 
that Nancy Lincoln, that plain backwoods settler's 
wife, at some camp-meeting altar gave her heart to 
God, and became a sincere Christian, we can never 
know; but I wish to impress it on all our hearts 
that it is possible for every one of us, if we become 
faithful Christians, to not only have comfort in our 
spiritual treasures, but to be able thereby to enrich 
and bless all who come in touch with us. 

Nothing makes me sadder than to see fathers or 
mothers with children growing up around them, 
refusing Christ and failing to give to their children 
the example and the influence which will after a 
while be the very dearest treasure that the child can 
have. I have never yet heard anyone speak with 
thanksgiving or gratitude because his father or 
mother was not a Christian. Whenever that has 
been the case it has been a fact for silence or for 
sad regrets. But how many have I heard — hun- 
dreds and thousands of people — thank God for the 
memory of the prayers and the example of Christian 
parents ! 

At an experience meeting in England, not long 
ago, the oldest man in the room, white-headed, ven- 
erable, and plain of speech, stood up and said : "My 
mother was an ailing woman for years. When I 
was a young man I walked into Bradford and 



154 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

bought a rocking-chair for her. I carried it home 
on my back, about three miles, and for fourteen 
years my mother sat in that chair every day. Then 
she died. Friends, when I pray to God every morn- 
ing, before going to my work, I kneel me down by 
that chair!" 

No mother could ask for a more enduring monu- 
ment than to leave behind her such an influence as 
would summon her children to prayer and praise for 
so many years. 

I do not see how parents who believe in God and 
in heaven and in Christ can let the impressionable 
years of their children go by, knowing that sickness 
and death is abroad in the land and that they may 
be called at any moment — I do not see how they can 
let the days go by without becoming themselves so 
earnestly Christian that they will constantly be 
leaving some touch upon their children the memory 
of which in case they were called from them would 
lead them toward heaven. 

A little boy was sailing a boat with a playmate 
a good deal larger than himself. The boat had 
sailed some distance out into the pond, and the big 
boy said : "Go in, Jim, and get her. It isn't over 
your ankles, and I've been in every time." 

"I daren't," said Jim. "I'll carry her all the 
way home for you, but I can't go in there ; she told 
me I mustn't dare to." 



THE BEST CHOICE 155 

"Who's 'she?' " 

"My mother," replied Jim, rather softly. 

"Your mother ! Why, I thought she was dead," 
said the big boy. 

"That was before she died. Eddie and I used to 
come here and sail our boats, and she never let us 
come unless we had strings enough to haul in with. 
I ain't afraid — you know I'm not ; only she did not 
want me to, and I can't do it." 

One of the best men I have ever known told me 
that his mother died when he was only three years 
old, and after she was gone they told him how his 
mother had prayed for him, and how she used to 
pray to God every day. When he was four years 
old he was put to live in a family that did not be- 
lieve in God or in prayer, and he saw nothing but 
wickedness about him; but the memory of that 
mother's prayers followed him, and he gave his 
heart to God before he was six years old, and all his 
life he has been a Christian with the infinitely gra- 
cious background of that saintly mother, who was 
called home when he was only three years old. She 
had chosen the treasure that could never be taken 
away. Thank God, you may have that treasure 
to-night. The greatest treasure on the earth may 
be had for the asking — yes, greater than any treas- 
ure on earth, the greatest treasure that can come 
to an immortal soul, you may have to-night without 






156 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

money and without price. There are many things 
you think you need, but Jesus Christ says, "Seek 
ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteous- 
ness; and all these things shall be added unto 
you." 



XVI 

JUDGING OURSELVES 

And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews ? And he 
answering said unto him, Thou sayest it.— Mark xv, 2. 

In the great pictures which have been painted 
of this scene of the meeting of Pilate a,nd Jesus, in 
the poems that have been written about it, and in 
the sermons and essays that have portrayed the 
striking situation, it has been common to call it, 
"Christ Before Pilate." But the truer order would 
be, "Pilate Before Christ." It was not so much the 
judgment of Pilate on Jesus as it was the judgment 
of Pilate on himself. There is something very 
significant and striking in this language of Jesus 
to Pilate. Pilate was a great man for evading 
responsibility, and it was in the same spirit that 
drove him afterward to wash his hands before the 
mob, to try to clear himself from the cruel and un- 
just condemnation of Jesus, that Pilate asked Jesus 
to judge himself, and say whether he was the king 
or not. But this Christ declined to do. He threw 
the judgment back on Pilate in the words, "Thou 
sayest it." 

So we are judging ourselves every day by our 
attitude toward Jesus Christ. We have on our 



158 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

hands the same question that Pilate had, and which 
he asked of the people to relieve himself when 
they wanted Barabbas released: "What shall I do 
then with this Jesus which is called Christ?" 

That is a question which I want to push home to 
our hearts to-night. What judgment are you 
going to pass on Jesus Christ ? Christ comes claim- 
ing to be a king. As such, he claims to have the 
right to all your worship and your service. You 
cannot treat him as you would anyone else. You 
must either reject his claim as impudent and un- 
warranted or you must accept his claim as proper 
and right. Your judgment in the case will greatly 
alter your conduct. If you judge Christ to have 
no right to your service, no claim on your honor 
or worship, then you will go on, indifferent toward 
him, worshiping your own pride, seeking success 
in your own way, and expecting to meet death at 
last without any help from heaven ; but if, on the 
other hand, you admit that Christ has the right to 
your service, that he has a just claim to your honor 
and love and worship, then you are in duty bound 
to at once obey him and do whatever he asks at 
your hands. There could be no greater inconsist- 
ency than to admit that Christ is the true king and 
lord of your soul, and has every right to your wor- 
ship and your love, and then go on living in indif- 
ference to his desires and commands. What say 



JUDGING OURSELVES 159 

you about Christ to-night? Is he your rightful 
king, or is he only a pretender ? 

Your judgment must again be placed upon 
Christ as a Saviour from sin. Christ comes offer- 
ing to be your Saviour from the guilt and condem- 
nation of sin. He came into the world and lived a 
life of hardship and suffering, and finally died upon 
the cross, that he might become the Saviour of the 
world, that he might make propitiation for the sins 
of the whole world. And from the day he forgave 
the dying thief, while he was hanging on the cross, 
until now, men have been seeking in Christ's mercy 
and love and through his atonement the forgiveness 
of their sins. 

Sin is in all lands and among all peoples. Peo- 
ple everywhere have felt its cruel hand. It has 
destroyed the peace, it has defiled the purity, it has 
outraged the innocence, it has broken the heart of 
people in every land under heaven. The beginning 
of every religion, the foundation of every ethical 
philosophy, has been because of the consciousness 
of sin and a persistent longing of the human heart 
to free itself from that awful "body of death." 
But everywhere failure has met the most ardent 
seeker save the man or the woman who has knelt at 
the feet of Jesus Christ. There the only relief has 
been found. Christ has never failed to give satis- 
faction to any earnest, seeking soul. In him the 



160 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

proud and the haughty have found the grace of 
humility. At the foot of his cross the miser has 
found generosity and love. In association with 
Jesus the drunkard has gained power to be his own 
master and has gone forth a free man. Men and 
women whose consciences were loaded down with 
guilt have lost their burden at his feet and have 
gone away with a new self-respect and with heart 
so light that they have sung songs of gladness and 
praise. There is no fact in history more thor- 
oughly established than the fact that Jesus Christ 
has power on earth to forgive sins. Perhaps there 
is no other fact so well established, for the evidence 
runs over hundreds of years. There are millions 
and millions of people on the earth to-day who, if 
it were necessary, would go to the stake and suffer 
martyrdom before they would recant their evidence 
that Jesus Christ has pardoned their sins. 

Now, what do you say about Jesus Christ as a 
Saviour? Christ comes offering to save you from 
your sins. He offers to pay your debt to the 
broken law of God. He offers to lift the burden of 
guilt from your conscience. He offers to cleanse 
your heart from evil and impure desires. He offers 
to come into your soul as King and Saviour, and 
dwell there from day to day a sympathetic Friend, 
a Friend with wisdom to advise and with unlimited 
power to give aid in every time of need. What will 



JUDGING OURSELVES 161 

you do with this Saviour? Is he to be your 
Saviour? Nobody can answer that but yourself. 
Christ is standing before you with heart-searching 
gaze, and saying to you as he did to Pilate, "Thou 
sayest it." 

Christ claims to be our Intercessor between man 
and God. We cannot approach God except through 
him. Our sins have broken God's holy law. We 
have no merit in ourselves, but we have much de- 
merit. The law says, "The wages of sin is death." 
But Christ went and took the punishment in our 
stead. "He was bruised for our iniquities." He 
died for us, so that God might still be just and yet 
be "the justifier of him that believeth on Jesus." 
And as the high priest in the olden time was accus- 
tomed to enter into the holiest place with the sacri- 
fice and there plead for the people, so Christ, at 
once our Sin Offering and our Priest, ascended on 
high and entered into the holiest place of all that 
he might be an Intercessor for us. Isaiah proph- 
esied this hundreds of years before Christ came into 
the world, when he said, "He bare the sins of many, 
and made intercession for the transgressors." 
And Stephen, the first of the long line of Christian 
martyrs, when his enemies were gnashing upon him 
with their teeth and were stoning him to death in 
their hate, kneeled down and looking upward cried, 

with a face so glowing that even his enemies de- 
ll 



162 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

clared it was the face of an angel, "Behold, I see 
the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing 
on the right hand of God." 

What will you do with Christ the Intercessor? 
He offers to intercede for you in the court of heaven, 
he offers to be your High Priest, and stand before 
the throne of God to plead not your merits but the 
merits of his own blood, shed on Calvary's cross 
in your behalf. Christ stands before you now. 
asking what you will do with him as an Intercessor. 
You must answer it for yourself. Those sad and 
loving eyes are on your face, and Jesus is saying 
to you, "Thou sayest it." 

Christ offers to prepare for your happy immor- 
tality. He offers, if you will accept his forgiveness 
and love and permit him to reign in your heart and 
commune with you in sweet fellowship through your 
earthly life, not only to fit you for heaven, but to 
fit a place in heaven for you. We are all of us 
hastening on toward the future, that future that 
lies on the other side of the gates of death. Life is 
uncertain to every one of us. It is the unexpected 
that happens. Going home to-night, or in the 
slumber afterward before the dawn, you are liable 
to come short up against the gates of death. No 
man has a lease of his life for a single day, and it 
cannot come to an end so suddenly that it will be 
more sudden than is happening to others every day 



JUDGING OURSELVES 163 

in the year. Surely there can be no man so full 
of folly that he does not feel that anything that 
offers to prepare the way for happiness in the life 
beyond is worth the most serious and honest con- 
sideration. Christ is the only teacher that has come 
to us from the throne of God and has gone back 
again to dwell in the court of heaven. And he has 
declared that he will look out for us there, and that 
everyone that will love him and give his heart 
to him shall be the special object of his care and 
love, and that when death comes it shall be no 
lonely going out into the darkness. When he was 
going away from his disciples he talked the matter 
over in the most comforting way with them, and 
said, gently: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye 
believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's 
house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would 
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again, and receive you unto myself; that where I 
am, there ye may be also." How different that 
makes the thought of death! We shall not go 
down into the grave with the body, but Christ will 
meet us and lead us to the home which he has pre- 
pared for us. He will introduce us to our heavenly 
Father, and the angels, and the great and good, and 
we shall rejoice in the fellowship of loved ones who 
have shared with us in the love of Christ on earth. 



164 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

I have seen a great many Christians die, and, as 
Wesley said, "they die well." I have never known 
Christ to forsake or fail to give comfort to a Chris- 
tian believer in the hour of death. On the other 
hand, I have seen many a sick room that was per- 
vaded with an atmosphere of heavenly courage, and 
I have watched the going away of men and women 
and children where the dying have not only been 
without the shadow of a fear, but with infinite joy 
and confidence and with smiling, rapturous faces 
have gone to meet their Lord. 

Now, what are you going to do with Christ, who 
comes asking to be your representative in heaven, 
and offering to fit for you a heavenly mansion, and 
to be at once your comforter on earth and your 
friend before God? Die you must. How soon 
you cannot tell. What will you do with this offer 
of Jesus Christ assuring you of a happy and vic- 
torious immortality? The question comes home to 
your heart to-night. You must either accept him 
or reject him. Christ stands there knocking before 
the door of your heart. His tender gaze is fixed 
upon you, as it was long ago upon Pilate, and those 
gentle lips are saying, "Thou sayest it." You 
are your own judge. By the flexible instrument of 
your own will you must form and seal your eternal 
destiny. God help you ! 



XVII 

WITNESSES AND TESTIMONY 

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, "We speak that we do know, and tes- 
tify that we have seen ; and ye receive not our witness.-«7b/m iii, 11. 

It is good in a world so full of doubt to find 
some things that can be known. Christ is talking 
to Nicodemus about the new birth which is neces- 
sary to salvation, and he declares that it is some- 
thing which men know about as an absolute cer- 
tainty, and that it is a great folly not to receive 
testimony of competent witnesses concerning this 
as readily as about anything else. Now, the mes- 
sage I have for you to-night is along this line. 
The salvation which we preach to you is something 
that may be experienced in a human heart and life. 
Multitudes of men and women have obeyed the 
Gospel. They have confessed their sins and for- 
saken them, and have asked of Christ divine 
forgiveness. The burden has been lifted from their 
consciences. They have been given a new impulse 
toward righteousness, and in multitudes of instances 
the whole current of life has been changed. Now, 
we claim that this testimony ought to be sufficient 
to convince any intelligent mind and persuade any 
true heart to turn to God. 



166 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

I am convinced that, despite all that is said about 
the failings of church members and professed Chris- 
tians, there is in many who claim to be skeptical far 
more confidence than they are often willing to 
admit in the divine power of Jesus Christ to control 
the heart and the life and preserve the soul from 
evil. 

A Texas ranger, a sort of mounted policeman to 
protect the people from cattle robbers, recently told 
an experience he had as a guest in a dugout on one 
of his rounds. 

He had ridden hard all day, tracking some guilty 
men. As the sun went down he saw smoke curling 
up from the ground. He rode toward it. No 
living thing could be seen. He saw the dugout, and 
knew people were living there by the smoke coming 
from the dirt chimney. He checked his horse before 
the doorway, and shouted, "Halloa !" 

Somebody inside shouted back, "Halloa your- 
self!" 

To feel his way toward a chance of stopping for 
the night, he called back, "Can you tell me where I 
can get lodging for the night?" 

"Forty miles ahead of ye!" was the sharp, curt 
answer. 

He was very tired and hungry, and the thought 
of forty miles more over the prairie made him heart- 
sick. But there seemed no help for it. He must 



WITNESSES AND TESTIMONY 167 

go, since there was no hope contained in the harsh 
answer given to him of getting lodging there. So 
he tightened his reins, and clucked, and spurred his 
horse to move on. 

"You blame fool, you ! What you gwine to ride 
forty mile this here time o' night for?" was yelled 
at him. 

He turned and stared at a grizzly, red-headed old 
man standing in the doorway of the dugout. He 
was big and tall, with long red beard and eyelashes. 
He waved to him, and ordered him, "Take your 
critter down there in the hollow and tether it, and 
come in here." 

With all his gruff talk, the ranger felt it safer to 
risk the night in the dugout than in forty miles of 
riding in the dark across the plains, so he dis- 
mounted and accepted the invitation. When he 
went into the dugout, he found it anything but 
encouraging. Two long bowie knives dangled 
from the man's belt, as well as two pistols, while he 
kept a rifle within reach of his hand. After a little 
desultory conversation a shadow in the doorway 
that obstructed the light made the ranger look up. 
Another rough, tall fellow stepped inside, loaded 
down with knives and pistols in his belt. The old 
man nodded toward the stranger and said to the 
newcomer, "Son, this here fellow happened by jist 
before night, and I gin him welcome." 



168 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

The young man gave him a very slight acknowl- 
edgment and proceeded to get supper. The hum- 
ble supper was soon over, and it was a very uncom- 
fortable meal to the ranger, who now thoroughly 
believed that he would be murdered that night ; but 
at the close of the supper the old man went to a 
shelf against the dirt wall and took down a mustard 
box. He opened it, and said, as he looked the 
ranger straight in the face: "Stranger, we goes to 
bed right arter supper. Before we does we allers 
reads outer this here little book. The old woman 
died and left us two year ago. Son reads outen 
this every night 'cause it was hern. She allers read 
outen it. It was her onlyist book she brought when 
we moved outen here. We is been powerful broke up 
ever since she took sick and died, and we put her out 
yonder under that scrub pine. When we reads 
outen her book somehow it 'pears like we ain't so 
lonesome, and it keeps us from losing heart about 
her." 

The old man took from the inside of the mustard 
box a very small Bible, and handed it reverently to 
his son, who sat down on the floor and read a chap- 
ter by the flickering firelight. All the ranger's des- 
perate suspicion vanished into thin air as he watched 
the faces of the two lonely men as the words were 
read from the dead woman's Bible, who in her iso- 
lated habitation from church or neighbors had left 



WITNESSES AND TESTIMONY 169 

such a sacred remembrance of herself in her humble 
home. The younger man read a chapter, and closed 
the book. The older one took it reverently and put 
it back into the mustard box, and placed it on the 
shelf. 

They stretched themselves upon pallets upon the 
dirt floor. The ranger went to sleep with no sus- 
picions that he might be killed. He felt that two 
men, desperate, and armed as they were with weap- 
ons which they did not lay aside even to sleep, who 
kept up the memory of the dead wife and mother 
by reading a chapter each evening from the Bible, 
which teaches men the path of right, could not be 
murderers. And they were not. 

This true incident of frontier life illustrates how 
even a slight association with the Bible, and with 
one who had loved and trusted it, had tamed the 
savage in desperate men and made them trust- 
worthy. How much more should the testimony of 
those who have opened their hearts to the full pres- 
ence and power of Christ insure our believing in 
the divine Lord who can work such miracles of 
blessing ! 

A Swiss artist who was an avowed infidel, and was 
blasphemously antagonistic to Jesus Christ, went to 
Sheffield, England, in 1880. His business there was 
to make a caricature of a Salvation Army meeting. 
He went there on that errand, and scanned the faces 



170 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

of the people. With his own heart like the troubled 
sea that could not find rest, tossed and driven by 
tempests of passion, and tormented by a conscience 
burdened with sin, he looked on the assembled wor- 
shipers and saw peace written on their faces and an 
inward joy beaming from their countenances. The 
sight convinced him that Christianity was true. He 
threw up his contract and gave his own heart to 
Christ. 

A young minister became very greatly interested 
in a family living near his church who were out- 
spoken in their opposition to religion. He called on 
the lady one day and she told him that she had no 
faith in such things and wanted nothing to do with 
the church. "Well," he said, "we are going to pray 
for you. You are the mother of beautiful children, 
who ought to be brought up Christians, and without 
mentioning your name we will pray for you at the 
church until you are converted to God." 

"Surely you cannot mean this?" 

"Yes, indeed, I do." 

He called on her several times, and each time she 
asked him almost excitedly, "Are you praying for 
me?" And he replied, "Yes, we are." She would 
have done anything to induce him to stop, and she 
declared that she never would become a Christian ; 
but after a while her spirit of curiosity was so great- 
ly aroused that she began to attend the meetings. 



WITNESSES AND TESTIMONY 171 

There the Lord met her and convinced her of sin. A 
few days later, when calling on her, the minister saw 
that there was a complete change. Her face was 
lighted up with joy. Something had happened. 

"Why, Mrs. Thomas, what's the matter? You 
look very happy." 

"Happy ? Yes, I am happy. I have got Christ, 
and I am saved !" 

"Praise God," said the minister. "Tell me about 
it." 

She said: "I could not bear the thought of all 
your prayers hanging over my head. I felt satisfied 
with myself, but I knew you were not satisfied about 
me. I tried to forget it, but it haunted me night 
and day. When you preached the other Sunday 
about the woman falling down before Jesus, and 
telling him all the truth, I felt simply awful. I 
came out of the church with the question ringing in 
my ears, 'Dear sinner, won't you fall down before 
Jesus and tell him all the truth ?' For several days 
I tried to shake off the thought, but I felt worse and 
worse, so I got down on my knees, told him all the 
truth, and accepted him as my Saviour. I can 
hardly believe it is true, and my infidel husband 
thinks it is a miracle ; but, thank God, I know in my 
heart I am saved. O do kneel down with me, and 
pray for my poor husband, that he may be saved 
also." They knelt and prayed earnestly that God 



L 



172 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

would work upon the husband's heart and bring him 
to accept Christ. 

Leaving the wife brimming over with joy and 
thankfulness to God for his great goodness, the min- 
ister hurried to the husband's place of business. 
Drawing him aside, he said: "Mr. Thomas, every- 
body knows you as a man who professes not to be- 
lieve in God, in the devil, in the Bible as God's word, 
in heaven, or in hell. Is that so?" 

He said : "I'm afraid that I have never believed 
in these things, but rather opposed them." 

"Well, now, I want to ask you a question : Your 
wife has been converted. She has given her heart 
to God. She has started to walk on the way to 
heaven as a Christian. Now I want to ask you hon- 
estly, 'Do you believe in your wife's conversion ?' ' 

He answered at once: "Believe it? Why, I can't 
help believing it. It beats me altogether to explain 
it. There is no doubt that something wonderful has 
happened to her. Why, she now reads her Bible, 
kneels down to pray with the children, kneels down 
and prays before retiring to bed, and even several 
times she has actually got out of bed in the middle 
of the night when she thought I was asleep and be- 
gun praying for me. I never thought there was 
anything in religion before, but I don't know 
what to think. Religion must have something in 
it, if it can make such an alteration in a woman 



WITNESSES AND TESTIMONY 173 

like my wife, for it certainly takes a lot to move 
her." 

The fact of his wife's real conversion, her 
changed life, her testimony, and her prayers for his 
conversion very strongly influenced him, and in less 
than a week he gave himself unreservedly to the 
Lord Jesus. 

Now I come to you this evening with the testi- 
mony of Christian experience. Here we are about 
you. You would take our testimony in court about 
the gravest and most important things. The testi- 
mony of any three or four of us here would mean 
the life or death of a man in any case of that sort. 
And here we are, scores of us, with nothing to gain 
by bearing anything but a perfectly true witness, 
and we do testify to you that Jesus Christ has 
power on earth to forgive sins, and that we know it 
because he has pardoned us and given us a con- 
science at peace with God. And we come asking you 
to accept Christ on our evidence and test him for 
yourself. Thank God, it is not a mere theory ; it is a 
matter of experience. Obey Christ and you shall 
know for yourself that it is true. Come, "taste, and 
see that the Lord is good!" 



XVIII 

THE DIVINE CHRIST 

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man 
cometh unto the Father, but by me.— John xiv, 6. 

This is one of those rare gems of Scripture where 
great truth is packed into the shortest, simplest 
words, that even a little child can understand. 
Christ makes three statements about himself. He 
declares that he is the way, and the truth, and the 
life. Let us try to study the text in as simple and 
straightforward a manner as that in which the 
Master has given it to us. 

First, Christ declares, "I am the way." The 
very manner in which this text is stated shows that 
it is a plain way. It was not meant that it should 
be hard to find. David long ago prayed God, 
"Lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies." 
There are many pitfalls along the way of life, and 
the most careful and prudent will pass through very 
many uncomfortable experiences. It is therefore 
of the greatest importance that the road to heaven 
is a plain path. If you tell me that you do not 
think so, because you have lived in the world for 
many years and have not found it, then there is one 
thing I know about you — I know you have not come 



THE DIVINE CHRIST 175 

to Christ. For he is the way, and he is so open- 
hearted and open-handed that no one can seek him 
simply and honestly without finding him. There 
is no aristocracy about Jesus. 

A German paper tells a pretty story of a courte- 
ous act of the king of Wurtemburg. A soldier was 
returning to the barracks of Ludwigsburg from 
an excursion in the suburbs. It was near the time 
for the evening drill, and he was in fear of being 
late. Suddenly a small vehicle driven by a man in 
civilian's clothes appeared. "May I take the 
vacant seat at your side, sir?" asked the soldier. 
"I am late for drill." 

"I'll be glad of your company," came the reply. 

The trooper took his seat. A few minutes later, 
looking at his watch, he grew pale. "Pardon me," 
he went on, "but might I ask you to drive faster? 
I have a great fear of my captain, who is a strict 
disciplinarian. If I am a minute late he will put 
me in the guardhouse." 

"To what barracks do you belong?" 

"The K barracks." 

"Very well ; we shall arrive in time." 

The driver whipped up his team, and in a short 
time drew up before the gate of the barracks. 

"Thank you, sir," said the soldier in descending. 

While the young trooper was still bowing his 
acknowledgments the officer on duty at the armory 



176 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

had ordered the guard to present arms. To the 
soldier's astonishment, his driver had been the king. 

But Jesus Christ came far closer than that to the 
hearts of men and women. He went fishing with 
his disciples. He ministered to them and to the 
poor and afflicted with his own hands. He laid 
his own palm upon the brow of the fever-stricken. 
It was his own touch by which he made the blind to 
see and the deaf to hear. No man was so leprous 
or possessed of demons so malignant, no woman was 
so lost to reputation and character, that Jesus 
Christ drew away from them or treated them coldly 
or with reserve. There was no reserve in the na- 
ture of Jesus. He came on earth to be the way 
over which man might travel to God, and his heart 
is as open as the highway on which men tread with 
their feet or drive their wagons. O my friends, it 
is a plain way. It is easy to find, and it is easy to 
keep. 

There is no stern ticket-taker to scan the people 
who come desiring to enter upon this way. Over 
the gate is written, in letters of living light, "Who- 
soever will may come." I am sure that takes you in. 

A very poor, ignorant old man had come under 
some religious influence and had become interested 
in his soul's salvation. He had taken to reading the 
Bible. His wife did not care about it, and one day 
she said to him, "Why, James, man, I wonder that 



THE DIVINE CHRIST 177 

you trouble yourself over that old Bible. You're 
no scholar, and you'll make nothing out with all 
your studying. For my part, I think there is a 
deal more satisfaction in a newspaper." And Han- 
nah Simpson, as she spoke, left her work at the 
other end of the kitchen and, wiping her hands on 
her apron, came and stood looking over her hus- 
band's shoulder as he sat at the table near the fire 
with an old-fashioned family Bible open before him. 

James took no heed of his wife's presence, his 
brows being knit over his task, his horny finger 
making slow progress over the paper, tracing out 
the letters of the words he was striving to read. 
"W-h-o," he spelled, "s-o-e-v-e-r — aye, but that's 
a heavy word!" And he breathed a deep sigh of 
mingled excitement and discouragement. "I can 
make out that it's about something rare and good," 
he exclaimed again, after he had slowly and labori- 
ously spelled his way through the remainder of the 
verse. " 'Let him take the water of life freely,' 
that's just what the preacher said, and he told us 
that 'water of life' meant salvation; but who is to 
take it? That beats me." Then, glancing around 
in his perplexity, he became conscious for the first 
time that his wife was near. 

"Hannah, I wish you could tell me what that long 

word is." 

Hannah, who scarcely knew one letter from an- 
12 



178 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

other, bent down and looked closely at the "long 
word." Then she shook her head. 

"No, James, I can't help you; it's all Greek to 
me. If our little Tim had lived we'd have made 
him a scholar. But don't take on about it, man. 
Maybe it don't mean anything in particular, after 
all." 

So Hannah returned to her work, casting occa- 
sional sympathizing glances at her husband as he 
still bent over the book, and wishing with an in- 
creased soreness of her mother-heart that their little 
Tim had not been taken; the house had been so 
lonesome ever since, and that was it surely that had 
set James to studying and saying such strange 
things about being a sinner. 

While Hannah's thoughts were thus busy her 
husband sat still and pondered. For some weeks 
past he had been carrying a heavy load on his heart. 
He scarcely knew how it first came there. It was 
strangely mixed up in his thoughts with the death 
of his child and a hymn that had been sung at little 
Tim's grave by the scholars of the Sunday school 
that he used to attend. James had always been a 
steady man, but he had lived with scarcely a thought 
of God, and his Sabbaths had been spent in careless, 
idle lounging instead of being used for the worship 
of God and the development of heart and soul. But 
when the dearly loved child had suddenly stepped 



THE DIVINE CHRIST 179 

from his father's side into a solemn eternity, speak- 
ing to the last of "Lord Jesus," and smiling joy- 
fully as the Good Shepherd took the little lamb in 
his arms, James realized what a life of terrible 
trifling his had been, and ever since he had been 
groping after the truth as it is in Jesus. 

Only the Sunday before the words of a street 
preacher had fallen on his ear, words that told of 
the "Water of Life," and of the love of Jesus in 
obtaining it for poor, perishing sinners ; and James 
had got a glimpse of the truth that made him long 
painfully for more. He knew now that this burden 
on his heart was unforgiven sin, and the preacher 
had said that Jesus would forgive sin. 

Then James, in his slow way, had reasoned it 
out that to take the "Water of Life" and to get sin 
pardoned were perhaps the same thing. There 
were two things about which he was quite clear. 
He needed salvation, and he would not rest until he 
found out how to get it ; and he thought that if he 
could but discover who it was that was so freely 
invited in that "long word" to take the "Water of 
Life" in the Scripture he had been reading it would 
throw great light on the subject. 

Suddenly he had a happy idea. He knew of a 
boys' boarding school, and he thought one of those 
boys would know the meaning of that "long word." 
He hurried down the street until he came to the 



180 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

outskirts of where some boys were playing ball. A 
good-humored-looking young fellow came running 
after the ball near the fence where James Simpson 
was standing. 

"I say, young master, can I have a word with 
you?" 

"You can have two or three words if you like, 
and if you'll be quick about it," said the jolly boy ; 
"but the fellows will want me back in a minute." 

"I thought you'd, maybe, tell me what these let- 
ters make up when they are put together," said 
James, and, with the air of a great schoolboy 
repeating his lesson, he slowly spelled out the long 
word that had so perplexed him. 

"That's whosoever" said the boy, proudly. 

"And will you be pleased to tell me what whoso- 
ever means?" asked James, anxiously. 

"O, it means you, me, or anybody." 

"Thank you kindly, young sir ; you've done me a 
great service." 

And James Simpson gave his heart to Christ as 
he walked home that day. It came upon him like a 
great burst of sunshine. He kept saying over and 
over, "You, me, or anybody." 

I thank God that that is still what it means, and 
that all the great blessings of salvation are open 
to everyone that will come to Christ to-day. Not 
one need be left behind. 



THE DIVINE CHRIST 181 

Christ is the truth. The truth about God is in 
him. The truth about man is in Jesus Christ. 
The truth about heaven and immortality all centers 
in Jesus. Many men and women who call them- 
selves truth-seekers go on through weary years in 
their search after truth, and grow more discouraged 
and more restless and uneasy with the search, be- 
cause they do not search in the right place. Christ 
is the great source of truth concerning all the great 
problems of man and his destiny. The greatest 
minds the world has ever seen have found that in 
Jesus Christ alone could they find satisfying spirit- 
ual truth. My brother, come to Jesus and find the 
truth about yourself. He knows what is in man. 
He knows what is in you. He knows the longings 
and the desires of your heart. He alone can par- 
don your sins, purify your spirit, inspire your soul, 
and comfort your heart. 

Christ is the life. No one else is able to quicken 
our life as does Jesus Christ. 

The story is told of Mendelssohn that at a con- 
cert at which he was to play he was late in arriving, 
and meanwhile a local organist filled up the interval 
of waiting with a selection of Scottish airs. Men- 
delssohn, when he came, slipped unobserved into 
his place at the organ, and, putting his hands upon 
the keyboard, carried on, without any break, the 
Scottish strain with his own brilliant improvising. 



188 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

At once a thrill went through the audience. They 
felt the change and, looking up, saw the explana- 
tion of it. The master himself was there. So 
Christ is the great Master in his power to give life 
to the human heart. When Christ comes, and when 
his touch is felt upon our heart, and that most mar- 
velous of musical instruments gives forth its music 
from under the hand of the Master, everyone knows 
that Christ has come. 

Christ is the fountain of life. He came that we 
might have life, and that we might have it more 
abundantly. Though you are dead in trespasses 
and in sins, Christ is able to bring you from the 
dead. He is able to arouse your soul and to give 
you freedom from your awful bondage of sin. He 
can speak into life your nobler powers that have 
been slumbering almost in unconsciousness. He 
alone can awaken your whole being to its splendid 
possibility of being a child of God. 

I am sure many of you must feel that you have 
been living far beneath your privilege. You have 
been living as though this world were all. You 
have gone on as though everything ended at the 
grave. You have lived as though you had no soul, 
as though there were no immortality, as though 
there were no heaven, no hell, and no Christ to be 
your Saviour and fit you for noble living here and 
glorious living beyond. My friends, you are not 



THE DIVINE CHRIST 183 

mere creatures of the earth, to eat and drink and 
look after your present appearance, like an ox in 
his stall or a horse in his pasture ! No, no, you are 
infinitely greater than that. You are a child of the 
Infinite, and there is a life for you that feels even 
here the throb of eternity in its pulse-beat. Jesus 
Christ can waken that life in you, and give it such 
power that it will sustain you amid all life's sorrows 
and struggles and grow great and glorious in you 
as you near the crowning day beyond the gates of 
death. Yield him all your heart, and all your life ! 



XIX 

THE GREAT RANSOM 

The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
and to give his life a ransom for many.— Mark x, 45. 

Dr. Robertson Nicoll, in his sermon on "Geth- 
semane, the rose-garden of God," brings out with 
great clearness the fact that this idea of atone- 
ment, of ransom through the shedding of blood, the 
giving of the life itself in sacrifice, is elemental in 
the very idea of religion. The word "bless" is 
derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for "blood," 
and the idea dimly aimed at is that before you can 
really bless another you must part with your life, 
or some of your life, for him. It takes a life to 
save a life. There was no way that man could be 
saved except by the life and death of Jesus. The 
mob that gathered about the foot of the cross 
uttered a greater truth than they knew when they 
said, "He saved others ; himself he cannot save." 
He could not save others and save himself. Man 
could only be ransomed and redeemed from his sins 
by the Saviour's blood. I want above all things 
to place this thought before you simply and plainly 
— that Jesus Christ took your place and gave his 
life on the cross as a ransom for you. 



THE GREAT RANSOM 185 

On one of Abraham Lincoln's excursions to For- 
tress Monroe, in 1863, his attention was directed 
to a narrow door, bound with iron, on one of the war 
vessels, the use of which he was anxious to learn. 

"What is this?" he asked. 

"O, that is the 'sweat box,' " was the reply. "It 
is used for refractory and insubordinate seamen. 
A man in there is subjected to steam heat and has 
very little ventilation. It generally brings him to 
terms very quickly. 

President Lincoln's curiosity was aroused. 
"This," he said to himself, "is treatment to which 
thousands of American seamen are probably sub- 
jected every year. Let me try it for myself, and 
see what it really is." 

Taking off his hat, he entered the inclosure, which 
he found to be little more than three feet in actual 
width. He gave orders that at a signal from him- 
self the door should be immediately opened. It 
was then closed, and the steam turned on. 

He had been inside hardly three minutes before 
the signal was given. President Lincoln had 
experienced enough of what was then regarded as 
necessary punishment for American seamen. There 
was very little ventilation, and the short exposure 
to the hot and humid air had almost suffocated 
him. 

Turning to the Secretary of the Navy, the Presi- 



186 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

dent ordered that no such inclosure as the "sweat 
box" should ever after be allowed on any vessel 
flying the American flag. 

It was not an hour after this order had been 
given before the news had spread to many vessels, 
and many of the older sailors wept for joy. How 
they loved Abraham Lincoln for that humane relief, 
and yet he had only gone into their place for three 
minutes ; and the relief how small compared to that 
which Jesus Christ came to bring. 

There is in England on the Tichborne estate a 
tract known as "the Tichborne Crawls." Many 
years ago the English lord who owned this land 
had a humane and sensible wife who took sorely to 
heart the condition of their wretched tenants and 
made every effort in her power to help them ; but 
she was a cripple. 

The peasants on the estate, owning nothing, lived 
idle and squalid lives, being simply retainers of the 
manorial house. Their only inspiration of a better 
sort was their love for their mistress. The lady 
could see that they needed the spur of industry and 
responsibility, and she often besought her husband 
to set off to them a tract of arable land, giving each 
laborer a life lease of the soil and the annual pro- 
ceeds of his tillage. Her importunities finally 
tired him out, and he told her, half in anger and 
half in jest, that he would set apart to the poor 



THE GREAT RANSOM 187 

tenants for nine hundred and ninety-nine years as 
much land as she would travel around alone in a 
month, beginning at the corner of the parish 
churchyard. 

The crippled lady was resolute, and she surprised 
her husband by taking him at his word. Carried 
by her attendants to the churchyard corner, she 
began her severe task, but she could not allow them 
to assist her. She persevered. Every morning, 
excepting Sundays, she was set down at her last 
finishing point, and made her painful day's prog- 
ress, in all weathers, till, at the end of the month, 
she had surrounded a number of acres that aston- 
ished herself and everybody else. With her bent 
body and feeble limbs her motion was more like a 
crawl, but she won the land, and the tract has been 
called "the Tichborne Crawls" ever since. 

The poor tenants, who with pity and shame had 
witnessed their good lady's suffering for their sake 
and had begged her in vain to desist, resolved to 
make themselves better worth the sacrifice as far 
as they could. They went home and washed them- 
selves and their children, cleaned up their dirty 
cabins, and sought to keep their hands and heads 
honestly busy. The day the land came into their 
possession was a double jubilee, for it found an 
eager people ready to improve and enjoy it, and it 
is not probable that any woman was ever more de- 



188 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

voutly loved than the woman who did that Christ- 
like deed in behalf of the poor and the helpless. As 
they had looked at her creeping along on her 
crippled limbs, knowing that every step was a pain, 
the tears had ran down their cheeks as they said 
to one another, "She is doing that for us I" 

My friends, I want to point you to Jesus Christ 
suffering and dying for you, and I want you to 
remember that he did it for you. Come with me 
out into the garden of Gethsemane. The Last 
Supper has been taken with his friends. Judas has 
gone away to sell his Lord for thirty pieces of 
silver. Christ, with Peter and James and John, 
has gone out into the garden to seek relief in prayer. 
As he prays the weight of the world's sin rests upon 
his shoulders and it seems as though his heart would 
break. We cannot tell what that awful agony 
meant. He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. 
He comes back to his disciples and finds them sleep- 
ing. He returns again to prayer, and an angel 
comes and communes with him. He goes back to 
the disciples, and they see a light coming, and hear 
noises. Soon the great mob following at the feet 
of the soldiers is on them. Judas has his thirty 
pieces of silver in his pocket. He comes up to 
Christ, and gives him a kiss of pretended affection. 
O, how that kiss must have hurt Jesus. He had 
loved Judas as he had the rest. He had done 



THE GREAT RANSOM 189 

everything he could to save him. But Judas had 
loved money more than he did his own soul, and now 
he has not only sold his Lord, he has sold his 
immortal soul for thirty pieces of silver. 

Do you see Jesus as he draws back in pain from 
that kiss and says, in a tone of infinite pity, "Judas, 
betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss" ? 

The soldiers take him and go away with him to 
the house of the high priest. And while they wait 
where are the disciples? All are gone but Peter, 
who, sitting warming himself at the fire of his 
enemies, is suddenly asked if he was not one of the 
friends of Jesus. He denied it. Pretty soon 
another came around and said, "Surely I saw you 
with him. And Peter denied again. A little later 
the servant girl, pointing to Peter, said, "This man 
was with him, too." And Peter went into a rage 
this time and cursed and swore that he had never 
seen him. 

At this point some strange influence drew Peter 
about, and he saw that Jesus was looking, and the 
look on the face of Christ he had never seen on any 
face before. It was the look of heartbroken, infi- 
nite love. And when he looked on that face, and 
saw the heartbreak in it, everything in him that 
was angry or proud or self-willed died. He went 
out into the darkness and sat down and cried like a 
child. For once and for all that night Peter 



190 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

repented. O, I would that every sinner here might 
just now get a look like that from Jesus Christ ! 

Then there came the trial before Pilate. There 
he stood, pale but patient, standing there for you. 
Pilate was hard and unfeeling, but he was a good 
lawyer and did not like to condemn an innocent 
man. However, the men who hated Jesus got 
around among the people and stirred them up 
against him, so whenever Pilate would say he would 
let him go they would cry out, "Crucify him, cru- 
cify him!" Pilate sends him to Herod. Herod 
sends him back again. The soldiers crown him 
with thorns. They press the thorn-wreath down 
on his tender brow until the blood runs down over 
his cheeks. My brother, he wore that crown of 
thorns that you might have a crown of life. Then, 
at last, when Pilate gives up to the mob, he orders 
him to be scourged. They strip him down to the 
waist; they bend his body over a beam with arms 
outstretched, tying him there so that he cannot 
escape, no matter how great the agony, then they 
take a whip of knotted leather, every stroke of which 
cuts the quivering flesh like a knife, and the cruel 
soldiers do their awful work. Brother, he bore 
that for you. It was no accident. Hundreds of 
years before he came into the world that very thing 
had been prophesied. When Jesus Christ left his 
throne on high and came down to earth to give his 



THE GREAT RANSOM 191 

life as a ransom he knew that he would take that 
beating for you. Isaiah had prophesied it, and had 
said, u He was wounded for our transgressions, he 
was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of 
our peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are 
healed." 

Then they bring out the big cross, and put it on 
the shoulders of Jesus; across that poor, bleeding 
back they lay the rough beam. Can you see him 
as he staggers out of the judgment hall? His 
poor body is faint and weak, and he staggers under 
the cross, and after a few paces he goes down on 
his knees with a moan. His murderers are alarmed 
now; they fear he will die at once. They do not 
want him to die so soon. With fiendish cruelty 
they wish the agony to be longer continued. So 
they take the cross and put it on the shoulders of a 
stranger who happens to be near, looking on. 
What an honor was his to bear the cross for Jesus ! 

Now, let us join the procession as it marches on 
its way up to Mount Calvary. As we draw near 
we see that there are others there already. Two 
thieves from the jail have been brought to the place, 
and one of them is to be crucified on either side of 
Jesus. The cross is laid down on the ground, and 
they lay Jesus down along that upright beam. His 
poor bruised and bleeding back is forced down 
against it. His arms are outstretched. The man 



192 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

who is accustomed to doing this sort of tiling 
until it is brutally commonplace to him takes up a 
big spike and a heavy mallet to drive the nail 
through the quivering palm of the Son of God. 
Ah, that was the hand that he put on the heads of 
little children when he said, "Suffer them to come 
unto me." That was the hand that he put on the 
eyes of the blind man and gave him sight. That 
was the kindly, loving hand that had never done 
anything but good deeds. But they drove the spike 
through his hands, and they drove another huge 
spike through his feet — feet that had always walked 
in the paths of mercy and of goodness. And now 
watch while a dozen men take hold of that cross 
and lift it up to its place, until with a dull and 
heavy thud the upright piece slips into the hole 
prepared for it, and there he hangs. 

O brother, he hangs there for you and for me. 
He came for that purpose, to give his life as a ran- 
som. Draw near while the mob hoots, while men 
wag their heads, while they shout their curses, and 
then listen. A hush falls over the brutal crowd. 
He is saying something. A hand is raised here and 
there. Hush ! hush ! See what reply he will make. 
They think they will get a dying man's curse, per- 
haps. They hope they will get something to turn 
into ridicule. But in a voice of such marvelous 
pity and tenderness that wicked as they were not a 



THE GREAT RANSOM 193 

man present ever forgot it, they heard the prayer, 
"Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they 
do." O my brother, he is saying the same thing to- 
night about you. You would have been cut down 
as a cumberer of the ground long ago if it had not 
been that Jesus was still interceding for you. 

Wait a moment longer beside that cross. Hard- 
hearted with sin, one of the thieves dying at his 
side joins his curses with those of the mob. But 
the other has heard that prayer and has felt that no 
mere man could have so prayed for his enemies. He 
has a flash of the truth. Suddenly he believes that 
Jesus is what he says he is, and with a great out- 
burst of repentance, a cry for mercy, he says, 
"Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy 
kingdom!" That prayer had immediate answer. 
Christ is never too busy about anything else to 
delay the answer to a sinner's cry for mercy. For- 
getting his own agony and pain, he replies, "To- 
day shalt thou be with me in paradise." 

And then there is a cry, "It is finished!" and 
the ransom has been paid. Christ has made it 
possible for God to be just, and yet the justifier of 
everyone that will accept mercy through him. My 
brother, he did all that for you. What have you 
done for him ? Come to him to-night ! 
13 



XX 

A SORROW THAT WORKETH JOY 

Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels 
of God over one sinner that repenteth.— Luke xv, 10. 

Illustrating the statement made in the text, 
Christ has been telling those beautiful stories of the 
lost sheep and of the lost piece of money. A shep- 
herd had a hundred sheep, and he came home one 
night and on counting them found but ninety and 
nine. He closed the door of the corral and went 
away through the gathering darkness, seeking 
after the one that was lost. After a while he found 
it and put it on his shoulder and came home re- 
joicing. Then he gathered the other shepherds 
together and called on them to rejoice with him 
because he had found his sheep which was lost. 

A woman had ten pieces of silver and lost one 
piece, and she searched for it high and low until 
she found it. Then she, too, called on her friends 
to rejoice with her, because she had found the piece 
which was lost. So Jesus says that the angels in 
heaven regard with infinite interest and love the 
search that is made for a lost soul, and when a 
sinner turns back to God, repenting of his sins, all 
heaven is animated with joy. 



SORROW THAT WORKETH JOY 195 

There is something very suggestive about this 
joy in heaven over human achievement. We are 
not told that the angels rejoice when a man makes 
a great fortune, or when one achieves vast success 
in science or in literature or in art. Perhaps that 
is because our wealth at the greatest seems a most 
insignificant thing to those who dwell in heaven, 
and our dabbling in science and in literature and 
in art must seem a very small matter, the mere 
amateur work of children, compared to the unfet- 
tered intelligence of those who bathe themselves in 
the sunlight of infinite wisdom. No, there is only 
one thing on earth which to that world of immor- 
tality is worth rejoicing over, and that is when an 
immortal soul, becoming conscious of his sin, flees 
from it to Christ, the mighty Saviour, and finds 
peace and pardon. Then all the angels watching 
on the heights of heaven rejoice. 

Some of you may have read the poem in which 
Robert Browning has used a little quotation from 
a ballad taken from King Lear — how "Childe 
Rowland to the Dark Tower Came" — and has pic- 
tured through it the last of the knights of a great 
band who had set out in early youth together on 
the great venture to find this tower ; and he is now 
found in midlife, weary and heartsick and hopeless 
and alone, with all his mates gone from him, dead 
or forsaken, and he himself has lost all thought of 



196 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

ever coming to the end of his quest and finding his 
tower; and he is only going on his way because 
through sheer habit he must, and he has turned into 
a plain that is ugly and bare, and he seems to have 
turned on that road by a lie which directed him 
falsely, he thinks, and still he hardly cares to ask 
whether it be true or false, the direction he is taking, 
he has no hope rekindling at the end descried, only 
wishing at last some end might be. His whole 
world-wide wandering had made his hope dwindle 
into a ghost. And now he is like a sick man very 
near to death, and he has so long suffered on this 
quest that he wishes he may die. He turns from 
the bare, ugly plain that is about him to try and 
cheer himself with the thought of the companions 
of his youth, and he remembers only that this one 
was lost in some disgrace, and that one came to 
grief in this way and another in that, and all are 
gone. 

"Better this present than a past like that; 

Back, therefore, to my darkening path again!" 

And still the plain worsens, still there is every sign 
of evil and of unknown sins which have blackened 
the surface of the earth. He cannot see a sight 
which does not bring him a thought of cruelty, of 
pain, of weariness and death, and there are strange 
beasts that flit by. And suddenly, just as the 
night darkens, just as he expects the end to come, 



SORROW THAT WORKETH JOY 197 

he looks up, and, lo ! right in his face, all at once 
there is the place, there is the tower — the very thing 
he had been searching for his whole life through. 
"What in the midst lay but the Tower itself!" 
There it is. He sees it as a shipwrecked man might 
see the goal of all his desire. How did he miss 
seeing it before? The whole world is waiting on 
all the hills around like giants watching to see 
whether he will be faithful in the quest at the last. 
At first he thought the world was dark, blind, dumb, 
and now the whole earth is crying with voices, voices 
of his old, lost companions behind him which are 
ringing in his ears. He sees them all, the long- 
dead companions of his youth, when hope was 
young, and he pulls and draws himself together for 
his last act : 

"There they stood, ranged along the hillsides, met 
To view the last of me, a living frame 
For one more picture! In a sheet of flame 
I saw them and I knew them all. And yet 
Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set, 
And blew, 'Childe Rowland to the Dark Tower 
came.' " 

Like that knight making his long pilgrimage, 
discouraged and defeated, seeking for the Dark 
Tower that meant to him peace and rest and com- 
fort, so many a man has gone through the world 
seeking peace for his soul and finding it not. He 
has sought for it in business, and it has escaped 



198 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

him. He has sought for it amid the pleasures of 
the world, and found there only transient j oy which 
died out to leave an aching heart behind. He has 
sought it in earth's friendships, and death has 
robbed him of its comfort. On, on he has pressed, 
the sky ever darker, and with lessening promise 
for the future, and then, suddenly, out of the dull, 
monotonous plain of this worldly life, as Childe 
Rowland came upon his tower, this man comes upon 
Christ and his promise of salvation and peace, and 
there is given to him by the Holy Spirit a flash of 
divine illumination, and he sees that here is the 
peace, the comfort, the joy that he has been seeking 
for all these years, and in that quick glance he sees 
that the angels of heaven are gathered to rejoice 
over his repentance and his coming to his own. A 
new song is put into his mouth. As Childe Rowland 
blew his slug-horn, so this new-made Christian sings 
his song of thanksgiving and of praise. 

Note that it is repentance on the part of the 
sinner that makes the angels sing. Now, repent- 
ance does not mean simply sorrow. It means a 
turning away from one's sins. Judas was so sorry 
that he hanged himself, but he did not truly repent. 
Peter was sorry, and wept, but he repented, and not 
only never denied his Lord again, but forever 
afterward was his faithful and open defender. 
Because repentance stands at the gate of the Chris- 



SORROW THAT WORKETH JOY 199 

tian life some are tempted to turn away from it as 
being a hard life. But it is not. Repentance is like 
the outer wall to keep robbers away from a beautiful 
garden within. Repent of your sins, seeing that 
they can only harm and ruin you, and turn from 
them to Christ, and the minute you are inside the 
gate the bells will begin to ring for joy and heaven's 
choir will sing. 

A gentleman tells of going to a seaside resort 
intending to stay for some time. On looking out 
for lodgings he saw in a window the sign, "Apart- 
ments to Let;" but as the house stood in a street 
with apparently no sea view he thought they would 
not be suitable. No others could be found, how- 
ever, and he was forced to return to these. What 
was his surprise on entering the house to find that 
what he had seen from the street was the back of the 
building, and that the windows at the other side 
commanded a lovely view of sea and beach — just as 
good a situation as he could have wished. It is like 
that with salvation. The turning away from sin, 
the renouncing it, and breaking with evil habits and 
evil associations — all these things have to do with the 
beginnings ; but when you have given your heart to 
God and really entered upon the Christian life 
there are the associations of that life which are 
good and pure; there is the approval of your own 
conscience; there is sweet communion with Christ 



200 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

and the Holy Spirit; there is the outlook upon a 
life pleasing to God and an immortality filled with 
infinite satisfaction. There is sorrow for the 
moment but joy for the eternity. 

Now, all this is in perfect harmony with God's 
dealings with us in everything. Joy comes to us 
through hard experience and trial in many ways. 
One Sunday morning, as Rev. Austin L. Park, of 
Gardiner, Maine, was getting ready for church, a 
stalwart-looking man who had before been pointed 
out to him as the most determined and influential 
infidel of the town was waiting at the door of the 
parsonage. He abruptly said : "Mr. Park, my wife 
wants you to come over to our house and pray for 
our little girl. She is very sick, perhaps dying. 
Of course you understand that it is my wife's con- 
cern, not mine. I do not believe in such things. 
But to pacify her I came over." 

Mr. Park replied, "I will go right over." And 
abridging his Sunday morning preparations as 
much as possible, he did so. The little girl ap- 
peared to be far gone from fever. The two phy- 
sicians called in could give no hope. Mr. Park 
offered prayer that she might recover. After pub- 
lic services the minister went back again to the 
bedside of the sick child. She was apparently 
unconscious and near death's door. The same state 
of affairs continued for two or three days, when 



SORROW THAT WORKETH JOY 201 

finally the father came to his house with the start- 
ling announcement, "Mr. Park, I have got all over 
my infidelity." 

"Got over your infidelity!" exclaimed the min- 
ister. "What do you mean? How did that 
happen?" 

"After you went away on that Sunday morning 
I went into the sick room saying to myself : 'There 
is not any God, and there is not any such thing as 
prayer. But I cannot let her go. I cannot live 
without her,' and so I said, 'Wife, I'll go and try 
to pray,' and so I went, saying over and over again, 
'O God, save my child !' For three days I did this 
same thing. The first and the second time she was 
no better. Each time I came back saying to my- 
self, 'There is no God; this is all nonsense.' The 
third day I knew in my heart that there was a God, 
and that he was going to raise my darling. I told 
my wife so. And the little one will recover." 

Now it was through this man's prayers for his 
child and his great sorrow and anxiety on her be- 
half that he was led to believe in God and to repent 
of his own sins. It was his necessity which was 
God's opportunity. When he found the little girl 
slipping away from his arms the father-heart which 
was in him cried out to his own heavenly Father. 

I call you to-night to the greatest privilege any 
man or woman on earth can have. You are lost 



202 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

from God's fold. You have wandered away 
through sin, and the Good Shepherd is seeking 
after you. If you hear his voice to-night do not 
go deeper into the darkness, but come back to 
him, and make your own heart glad, cause our 
hearts to rejoice, and set the joy bells in heaven 
ringing by your return to Christ. 



XXI 

THE NEW CHILDHOOD 

Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of 
God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.— Mark x, 15. 

If we are to go to heaven by the way of child- 
hood it behooves us to keep in touch with childhood 
and know well its characteristics. Childhood's 
supreme power is in its perfect trust and confidence 
in the strong friends who surround it. Childhood 
is weak and helpless, and knows it, but its trust 
is its strength. 

In English cities, and occasionally in America 
during the last two years, there have been two pic- 
tures often placed side by side in shop windows. 
One of these pictures represents Lord Roberts with 
a little child on his knee, at Pretoria, in South 
Africa, saying to a member of his staff who ap- 
proaches him with some message, "Don't you see I 
am busy ?" The other is that one in which a little 
child is pictured as crossing a crowded street, and 
the policeman is holding up his hand to stop the 
traffic until it gets safely over. It is entitled "His 
Majesty the Baby." 

A gentleman who stood at one of these windows 
and watched the people as they glanced into it, or 



204 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

stopped to consider it, says it was a very interesting 
study. Many of them approached the window with 
a look of abstraction or with even a frown on the 
brow, some with a look of sadness and sorrow ; but 
as they went away their faces were lit up by a kindly 
smile. The pictures seem to be popular with 
everyone, whether young or old, rich or poor. 
They touch a tender chord in all hearts. 

The little child has always had this majesty and 
power among good people the world over. The 
little Moses in his bulrush cradle captivated the 
royal heart; he mastered the heart of Pharaoh's 
daughter. It is said that some men are born booted 
and spurred, to ride; and some are born saddled 
and bridled, to be ridden. But these distinctions 
all come out after the years of childhood have 
passed. The truth is we are all born with boots and 
spurs and have our time of ruling. 

When we inquire into the secret of the child's 
power, we find that it is in its trust and confidence. 
It is helpless ; it cannot fight for itself ; it can only 
win through faith. Now I am sure that that was 
one of the things that Christ had in his mind when 
he uttered our text. We shall never win salvation 
by our own struggles. We shall never be able to 
ifight our own way out of our sins and into the divine 
life of peace and forgiveness. Our only hope is 
to surrender ourselves to Christ in childlike faith 



THE NEW CHILDHOOD 205 

and confidence, and when we do that the gates of 
the kingdom of heaven will fly open and we shall 
rest at peace with God. 

Childhood is genuine. It has no cynicism, no 
malice. Sin spurs men and women as they go on 
in life, and makes them bitter, and takes away the 
old attitude of gentle, confiding faith toward God. 
We must get rid of that if we are to have peace with 
God. The greatest man in the world can only come 
like a little child to the feet of Jesus Christ and 
confess his sin and ask for forgiveness. And when 
we do that the worst sin will give way and be blotted 
out by his blood. 

Mrs. J. K. Barney, whose missionary work in 
Cuba has been so favorably regarded, tells a most 
interesting story of a conversion which took place 
on the Pacific coast in a mining region some years 
ago. One day Mrs. Barney learned that over the 
hills from where she was stopping a man so un- 
speakably vile that no one could stay with him was 
slowly dying by an incurable illness. This descrip- 
tion so moved Mrs. Barney that she called at the 
little adobe cabin. She found the sick man lying 
on some straw and colored blankets. Her shadow 
in the doorway was the signal for him to break forth 
into frightful oaths. Quietly advancing, however, 
she placed within his reach some fruit she had 
brought. Then, retreating to the door, she tried 



206 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

to reach his heart by speaking of his mother, his 
wife, and his God; but he cursed each one. Mrs. 
Barney was greatly discouraged, but the next day 
she went back again, and she went every day for two 
weeks. He did not show the least gratitude. At 
the end of that time she said, "I am not going any 
more." 

That night, when she was putting her little boys 
to bed, she did not pray for the miner as she had 
been accustomed to do. Her little Charlie noticed 
it, and said, "Mamma, you do not pray for the bad 
man." 

"No," she answered, with a sigh. 

"Have you given him up, mamma?" 

"Yes, I guess so." 

"Lias God given him up, mamma? Ought you 
to give him up before God does ?" 

That night she could not sleep for thinking of 
the man, dying, and so vile that no one cared. She 
got up and went away by herself to pray. She 
learned that night what she had never known before, 
what it was to travail for a human soul. She saw 
her Lord as she had never seen him before. She 
stayed there until the answer came. 

The next day, the moment her little boys went off 
to school, she left her work, and hurried over the 
hills, not to see "that vile wretch," but to win a soul. 
She thought the man might die. There was a 



THE NEW CHILDHOOD 80Tf 

human soul in the balance, and she wanted to get 
there quickly. As she passed on a neighbor came 
out of her cabin, saying, "I'll go over the hills with 
you, I guess." 

Mrs. Barney was in a hurry, and did not want 
her very much, so absorbed was she in her own 
thoughts ; but she learned that day that God could 
plan better than she could. The neighbor had her 
little girl with her, and as they reached the cabin 
she said, "I'll wait out here, and you hurry, won't 
you?" 

The wicked miner met her as usual with an oath, 
but it did not hurt as it had before. While she was 
tidying up his room and getting him some fresh 
water the clear laugh of the little girl rang out 
upon the air like a bird note. "What's that?" 
asked the man, eagerly. 

"It's a little girl outside who is waiting for me." 

"Would you mind letting her come in?" said 
he, in a different tone from any she had heard 
before. 

The child was very sweet, her face framed in 
golden curls, and her eyes tender and pitiful. In 
her hands she held the flowers she had picked on the 
way over the hills, and bending toward him she said : 
"I am sorry for you, sick man. Won't you have a 
posy?" 

He laid his great bony hand beyond the flowers 



208 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

on the plump hand of the child, and the great 
tears came into his eyes as he said : "I had a little 
girl once, and she died. Her name was Mamie. 
She cared for me. Nobody else did. Guess I'd 
been different if she'd lived. I've hated everybody 
since she died." 

Mrs. Barney then had the key to the man's heart. 
She watched the man's face before her, and she saw 
that memory was busy with scenes that were long 
since gone, and that the agony of remorse was tor- 
turing him. At last he exclaimed to her, "What's 
that, woman, you said the other day about talking 
to somebody out of sight?" 

"It's praying. I tell God what I want." 

"Pray now. Pray quick. Tell him I want 
my little girl again. Tell him anything you 
want to." 

Mrs. Barney took the hands of the child and 
placed them on the trembling hands of the man. 
Then, dropping on her knees, with the child in 
front of her, she told the little girl to pray for the 
man who had lost his little Mamie and wanted to see 
her again. And the sweet little child prayed: 
"Dear Jesus, this man is sick. He has lost his little 
girl, and he feels bad about it. I am so sorry for 
him, and he's so sorry, too. Won't you help him, 
and show him where to find his little girl? Do, 
please. Amen." 



THE NEW CHILDHOOD 209 

The little girl slipped away soon, but the man 
kept saying, "Tell him more about it. Tell him 
everything." 

There were no more oaths after that, but, led by 
the little child's hand, and piloted by her sweet and 
simple little prayers, the miner took hold upon the 
Strong Hands, and as he said in his own language 
"staked all" on "the Man that died for me." 

Mrs. Barney was not with him when he died, but 
one of the rude mountain men who was with him 
said to her, "I wish you could have seen him when 
he went." 

"Tell me about it," she answered. 

"Well, all at once he brightened up about mid- 
night, and smiling said, 'I am going, boys. Tell 
her I am going to see Mamie. Tell her I am 
going to see the Man that died for me.' And he 
was gone." 

That poor, wretched miner lost all his cynicism, 
all his bitterness, all his oaths, all his hatred when 
he got back to childhood again. He found the 
child's faith that received the story of Jesus natu- 
rally and simply and trusted it implicitly. You may 
have salvation on those terms to-night. It is not a 
matter to speculate about. It is not a matter to 
theorize over. It is not a matter for argument. 
It is a matter to test by personal experience. Obey 

the Lord Jesus Christ, and rest your faith on him, 
14 



210 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

and you shall know for yourself "the peace that 
passeth all understanding." 

But the thing I wish most to press home upon 
your hearts is that you obey Christ, and obey him 
now. Give yourself something that will guide you 
from this hour on a straight path for heaven. 

Two men were out hunting, and were overtaken 
by a dense mist. One of the men, who knew the 
country well, said he would bring them out straight 
to the point they wanted, knowing the part of the 
stream at which they stood and the direction in 
which they wanted to go. For a while they went 
on safely enough ; then one stopped and turned to 
button his waterproof. The guide turned for a 
moment to speak to him. Then instantly he cried : 
"I have lost my bearings. That turn did it. I 
don't know the way any longer." They went on, 
thinking they were right, but an hour later found 
themselves back in the same place. They had gone 
in a complete circle. "Now," said the guide, "we 
can start again; but we must not stop for any- 
thing." Away they went, and he led them right 
across to the point he wanted. Later he explained 
to his friend that, knowing the direction at the out- 
set, he kept his eye on a certain tree or rock straight 
before him, and so led in a fairly straight line, 
knowing that if he lost that he was sure to go in a 
circle. 



THE NEW CHILDHOOD 211 

Now, my dear friend, our safety lies in the same 
thing. Some of you have gone on for years, ex- 
pecting all the while to become Christians and make 
your way from earth to heaven ; but you have made 
no headway. You have gone round and round in 
a circle, getting farther away from God and from 
righteousness. Not only that, but you have lost 
years in which you might have been growing into 
a strong and happy Christian. Do not waste any 
more time. With childlike simplicity and faith 
obey the Lord Jesus to-night. Confess him openly 
and set your eyes upon him. Take Paul's great 
words, "This one thing I do, forgetting those things 
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
things which are before, I press toward the mark 
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus." 



XXII 

THE LUST FOR THINGS 

A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he 
possesseth.— Luke xii, 15. 

Ouu theme is very evident: Things do not make 
the man. Many a man has brilliant and beautiful 
things and is in himself, in his real personality, 
common and vulgar and even loathsome. On the 
other hand, it is true that many men and women 
who have a very small supply of things — nothing, 
indeed, to attract the eye of the multitude — are yet 
in themselves brilliant and glorious. Christ was 
so poor he had not where to lay his head; yet the 
bright, brainy men of all the centuries since have 
rejoiced and marveled as they have studied into his 
personality. The rich men of his day who owned 
the broad fields and the great flocks and the long 
purses — who knows anything about them now? 
Their names have gone to the bats of oblivion 
eighteen centuries ago. 

The whole world knows John Bunyan, the Bed- 
ford tinker, who spent many years in jail and who 
was always poverty-stricken, and the millions bless 
him. Yet there is probably not a man on earth 
that could give you the names of the richest men in 



THE LUST FOR THINGS 213 

London, or any one of them, during the years 
when Bunyan was writing The Pilgrim's Progress 
in Bedford jail. 

One may have things until they form a desert in 
which the man starves to death and yet have no real 
value in his own personality. Indeed, one may be 
captured and destroyed by the very material success 
which he has achieved. Dr. Alexander McLaren 
says that there is many a rich man whom the shouts 
of the stock exchange declare to be wonderfully 
successful who from the highest point of view, the 
only true point of view, is a dead failure. He has 
gained all that he desires, but instead of conquering 
the world, the world has conquered him. It has 
not helped him to know God, neither has it helped 
him to be a man. His success has turned him into 
a money-bag and hid from him the face of God. 
People say of him that he is successful, that he 
has had a victorious life ; but his victory is like that 
of the soldier who was out on the picket line. He 
shouted in to his companions in camp, saying, "I 
have taken a prisoner." But as he did not come 
in the officer shouted back to him, "Bring your 
prisoner along." And the answer was, "He won't 
come !" Then came another command, "Then come 
in without him." To which there came back the 
reply, "He won't let me." That is the kind of vic- 
tory over the world, the kind of success, that a great 



214 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

many people are winning. They are said to be 
successful, but in truth they have been captured and 
are held in bondage. The noble visions of life 
which they had in the early years of youth have 
been lost in the fight for success. Though they 
now have many things they have lost their souls. 
Better a thousand times to fail in business ambitions 
than to fail to be a man. No man is so terribly 
cheated as he who trades off his manhood, his honor, 
his love for God, his title to heaven, for a few paltry 
things that he may call his own only for a little 
while here on earth. "Take heed, and beware of 
covetousness." The great prize of life is the 
prize of a pure soul, cleansed and redeemed by the 
blood of Christ. And if a man misses that, and 
comes to the end at last a mere grubber after things, 
he has been horribly cheated. 

Now I want you to ask yourself the question 
where your chief interest lies, as expressed by your 
daily living and conversation. Is your attention 
largely and with great preponderance given to the 
things of this world, or is your chief attention and 
thought centered upon the far greater object of 
living a true Christian life and developing a person- 
ality that shall so please God that it shall shine 
forth redeemed and glorified at the judgment day? 
Where is the emphasis laid in your life — on the 
worldly things which surround you or upon the 



THE LUST FOR THINGS 215 

graces of the soul? Everything depends on the 
emphasis. That shows where your heart is. 

On one occasion Ole Bull, the great violinist, was 
a passenger on the City of Chester crossing the At- 
lantic. Among other notable passengers were Chief 
Justice Waite and Professor Anderson, afterward 
minister to Denmark. The passengers undertook 
to get up a concert, but Ole Bull declined to take 
part. All were deeply disappointed, and at this 
crisis Professor Anderson came to the rescue. 

"There is one way, and one only," he said, "in 
which our man may be caught. A fund is being 
raised at present to erect a statue to Leif Ericsson, 
the Norseman, at Madison, Wisconsin. Ole Bull 
is intensely patriotic, and if we made a written 
statement to him that the proceeds of the concert 
were to be contributed to do this honor to his 
immortal fellow-countryman, I am sure he would 
consent to play." 

The suggestion was greeted with applause, and 
Chief Justice Waite prepared the memorial, which 
was a most ingenious and elaborate document. 
Duly signed by all the passengers, it was presented 
to Ole Bull, and when he saw the purport of the 
paper his face lighted up with pleasure, and he 
declared immediately that he would play. 

He was as good as his word, and played in won- 
derful form and spirit. He responded to encore 



216 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

after encore, until at last the captain, who was a 
most enthusiastic Englishman, rose in the audience 
and asked him to play "God Save the Queen." 

Now, Ole Bull was a violent Republican, and had 
but little respect for monarchical institutions of 
any kind. However, he bowed courteously, and 
whispered to Professor Anderson: "You heard me 
promise to play 'God Save the Queen.' Now wait 
till I come to that." Finally it was reached, and, 
true to his promise, he gave the British anthem, but 
in a dull and lifeless way, without spirit or color. 
Instantly, upon its conclusion, he swept into the 
stirring strains of "Hail, Columbia," and played 
with magnificent dash and fire. Then, with no 
stop, he passed to the Norwegian "Hymn of Lib- 
erty," a most thrillingly patriotic composition. 
Then, as he finished, he caught his friend's eye, and 
smiled. He had buried "God Save the Queen" so 
deep that nobody remembered that it had been 
played. 

My friend, is not that a clear illustration of the 
way you have dealt with the spiritual strains of 
your childhood and youth? You were taught to 
pray at your mother's knee. You were told the 
story of Christ by loving lips that it may be are 
now forever silent on earth. You had visions of a 
Christian life and a Christian character that should 
grow splendid and glorious as the years went on. 



THE LUST FOR THINGS 217 

But as the years have passed you have buried all 
these holy visions, all these sacred hopes and prom- 
ises of youth, deep down under the muck and dirt 
of the things of this world — buried them so deep 
that you seldom ever think of them any more. O, 
I pray God that the Holy Spirit may resurrect them 
and make them appeal to you again at this hour, 
that you may be aroused to the vast importance of 
the salvation of your soul. Multitudes of men and 
women in this city who have abundance of this 
world's goods would be far richer in all true wealth 
if they could be stripped of houses and lands and 
stocks and money and left without a dollar, if they 
could be left free from their sins, clean-hearted, 
with faith in God, to start anew. 

Some years ago, one cold Sunday morning, a 
young man crawled out of a market house in Phil- 
adelphia into the chilly air just as the bells began 
to ring for church. He had slept under a stall all 
night ; or, rather, had lain there in a stupor from a 
debauch. His face, which had once been delicate 
and refined, was blue from cold and blotched with 
sores. His clothes were of a fine texture, but they 
hung about him in rags, covered with mud. He 
staggered, faint with hunger and exhaustion; the 
snowy streets, the gayly dressed crowds thronging 
to the churches, swam before his eyes ; his brain 
was dazed for want of his usual stimulants. He 



218 THE HEADING OF SOULS 

gasped with a horrid, sick thirst, a mad craving for 
liquor, which the sober man cannot imagine. He 
looked down at the ragged coat flapping about him, 
and then at his brimless hat, to find something he 
could pawn for whisky, but had nothing. Then he 
dropped upon a stone step leading, as it happened, 
into a church. 

Some elegantly dressed women, seeing the 
wretched sot, drew their garments closer, and hur- 
ried by on the other side. One elderly woman 
turned to look at him just as two young men of his 
own age halted. 

"That is George C ," said one. "Five years 

ago he was a promising lawyer. His mother and 
sisters think he is dead." 

"What did it?" 

"A fashionable set first, then brandy." 

"You have not had breakfast - yet, my friend," 
said one of them. "Come, let us go together and 
find some." 

The young man drew the arm of the poor sot 
through his own, and hurried him, trembling and 
resisting, down the street to a little hall where a 
table was set with strong coffee and a hot, savory 
meal. It was surrounded with men and women as 
wretched as himself. 

He ate and drank ravenously. 

When he had finished his eye was almost clear and 



THE LUST FOR THINGS 219 

his step was steady. As he came up to his new 
friend he said : "Thanks ! You have helped me." 

"Let me help you farther. Sit down and listen 
to some music." 

Somebody touched a few plaintive notes on the 
organ and a hymn was sung, one of the old simple 
strains which mothers sing to their children and 
bring themselves nearer to God. The tears stood 
in the eyes of the drunken lawyer. He listened 
while a few of the words of Jesus were read. Then 
he rose to go. 

"I was once a man like you," he said, holding out 
his hand. "I believe in Christ; but it is too late 
now." 

"It is not too late," cried his friend. 

Then and afterward that Christian young man 
stuck faithfully to him until he won him to an open 
acceptance of Christ and salvation. And steadily 
from that day he began to rise. Through Christ 
he got victory over his appetite and his evil habits, 
and he built up under God's grace a manly charac- 
ter that all the world honored. He was a richer 
man in every true sense the morning he gave him- 
self to Christ, with all the wreckage behind him, 
than he was when the world called him successful 
but while he himself was given over to the greed 
and sensual pleasure that finally ruined him even 
for this world. 



220 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

My message this evening ought certainly to have 
in it a most earnest exhortation to accept Jesus 
Christ as the true wealth of the soul. Paul says 
that if we give our hearts to Christ we become heirs 
of God and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Respond to-night to the knocking of Christ on the 
door of your heart, and open the door to him, and 
there shall be begun in your heart the development 
of spiritual riches that can never be taken away 
from you. No loss of property, no loss of health, 
no loss of friends can take away from you the 
charm and the beauty and the happiness of the 
spiritual graces which Christ can cause to grow 
in your heart. And when Death, the grim tax- 
gatherer, shall come- — he who takes away all the 
gold and all the title deeds and leaves the million- 
aire to go into his coffin as poor as the pauper — 
he will have no power to rob you of the riches of 
faith and hope and love which Christ has bestowed 
upon you. When worldly men are yielding up 
their title deeds with a sigh of despair you with a 
thrill of infinite delight will be coming into yours 
and will be rejoicing that you have "a title clear" 
to an inheritance incorruptible, undefined, and that 
fadeth not away, which is reserved in heaven for 
3^ou. The time to make sure of that title is now. 
"Now is the accepted time." 



XXIII 

NEAR YET OUTSIDE 

Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.— Mark xii, 34. 

The occasion of the utterance of these words by 
our Saviour was a conversation which he had with 
some men known as "the scribes, 5 ' who were very 
critical of him and who were ever seeking to con- 
fuse him and to put him in the wrong. One of 
these men who had come in after the conversation 
had started was of a better type than the others, 
and as the world judges men was a very good kind 
of a man. He had some very good ideas about re- 
ligion, yet he lacked the one essential thing, the 
surrender of his heart in devotion to God. He 
knew the creed of religion well. After he had 
listened to the conversation for a time, and had 
greatly admired the answers which Christ gave, he 
himself put in an inquiry. "Which," asked he of 
Christ, "is the first commandment of all?" 

Jesus answered him, "The first of all the com- 
mandments is, Hear, O Israel ; the Lord our God is 
one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
all thy mind, and with all thy strength : this is the 



THE HEALING OF SOULS 



first commandment. And the second is like, namely 
this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 
There is none other commandment greater than 
these." 

To this the scribe replied, "Well, Master, thou 
hast said the truth, for there is one God ; and there 
in none other but he : and to love him with all the 
heart, and with all the understanding, and with all 
the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his 
neighbor as himself, is more than all the whole 
burnt offerings and sacrifices." 

Jesus then made the remark of our text: "Thou 
art not far from the kingdom of God." Yet he 
was not in the kingdom. He knew enough to be 
saved, and yet might never be saved. And there 
are multitudes to-day who are living in the same 
situation. They are not far from the kingdom, 
they know the way to the kingdom, and yet they 
stay out. I know of nothing sadder. Knowledge 
is given us to act upon, and to have the knowledge 
of any important truth which has relation to our 
own duty and not to act upon it cannot help but 
injure us. No man can know his duty and fail to 
do it and be as good a man afterward as he was 
before. Every truth carries its obligation with it. 
If we do not obey the truth which comes to us, then 
we are morally degenerated by it. Christ said to 
the scribes and Pharisees of his time that the pub- 



NEAR YET OUTSIDE 223 

licans and harlots, wicked as they were, had a better 
chance for salvation than the more moral people, 
because they had not had the truth presented to 
their minds and impressed upon their consciences 
time and again and yet had hardened their hearts 
and refused to act on the wisdom God had given 
them. I have often noticed that when a man has 
been strongly impressed with the duty of becoming 
a Christian, and has had the matter earnestly and 
persistently placed before him, so that he has recog- 
nized the duty of confessing Christ and has seemed 
at the very door and in the very act of entering into 
the kingdom, if he failed to enter he almost inev- 
itably drifted farther than ever away from God. 

Mr. Spurgeon said it was his experience that 
among the people whom he knew those who after- 
ward turned out to be the most determined enemies 
of the Gospel were those whom he had seen so near 
conversion that it was impossible to see how they 
avoided it. Such persons seem ever after to take 
vengeance upon the holy influence which had almost 
proved too much for them. Hence our fear for 
persons under gracious impression; for if they do 
not now decide for God they will become the more 
desperate in sin. That which is set in the sun if it 
be not softened will be hardened. I remember well 
a man who under the influence of an earnest re- 
vivalist was brought to his knees to cry for mercy 



224 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

in the presence of his wife and others. But, refus- 
ing to make a public confession of Christ in the 
church, he drifted entirely from Christian influence, 
and never afterward would he enter a place of wor- 
ship or pay any attention to religious conversation. 
That man had been on the very threshold of the 
gate of the kingdom, and yet he turned away to be 
lost forever. 

A Welsh minister says the saddest thing he ever 
had to do in his life was to go and see the family of 
a man lost in a wreck almost at his own door. A 
sailing vessel, the Royal Charter, after safely cir- 
cumnavigating the globe went to pieces in Moelfra 
Bay, on the coast of Wales, and it was his melan- 
choly duty to visit and seek to comfort the wife of 
the first officer, made by that calamity a widow. 
The ship had been telegraphed from Queenstown, 
and the lady was sitting in the parlor expecting her 
husband, after his long voyage, with the table 
spread for his evening meal, when the messenger 
came to tell her that he was drowned. "Never can 
I forget the grief," said the pastor, "so stricken and 
tearless, with which she wrung my hand, as she 
said, 'So near home, and yet lost !' " That seemed 
the most terrible of sorrows. And yet how insig- 
nificant is that sorrow to the anguish which must 
wring the soul which is compelled to say at last, 
"Once I was at the very gate of heaven, and had 



NEAR YET OUTSIDE 225 

almost entered in; but failing to enter I am lost, 
and lost forever !" 

There are some moments of life that are infinitely 
critical on all our after life. There are vision 
hours that come to us, and they often come in meet- 
ings like this. Men see their sins in a different 
light than they see them at other times, and they 
see Christ as they do not see him at other times. 
At such a time it is easy to be saved, and to neglect 
is the suicide of the soul. 

Henry Ward Beecher once said that when such 
luminous hours come a man should reflect that while 
the mercy of God may call many times it is very 
likely he will never have another call so powerful, 
and if a man in such an hour, when the Spirit 
speaks to his soul, when his conscience is aroused, 
when everything urges him forward toward a nobler 
and a better life, will ratify his impulse to go 
forward, even though at first he stagger on the 
journey, he will find his way into the kingdom of 
God; but if he waits, even a few hours may sub- 
merge all these gracious influences and sweep him 
far away into the darkness. The element of time- 
liness enters with great significance into human life. 
Some years ago all the civilized world sent out men 
to take an observation of the transit of Venus, and 
when the conjunction came it was indispensably 

necessary to the success of the undertaking that the 
15 



226 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

very first contact should be observed. An astron- 
omer who had devoted six months to preparation, 
and had gone out to take this observation, ate a 
heavy dinner, and, taking copious draughts of 
liquid to wash it down, lay down, saying, "Call me 
at the proper time," and went to sleep. By and by 
he was awakened and was told, "The planet ap- 
proaches." Half conscious, he turned over and 
said, "Yes, yes, yes, I will attend to it, but I must 
finish my nap first ;" and before he was aware of it 
the greatest opportunity in his whole scientific ca- 
reer had passed away, and he had thrown away 
the pains of months of preparation. It was im- 
portant that he should be on hand to take the 
observation on the second, and failing in that he 
failed forever. 

But, my dear friend, you are interested in a 
heavenly observation infinitely more important than 
that which the astronomer lost. God has given you 
this great opportunity to find the forgiveness of 
your sins through Jesus Christ; the Christian 
people are praying; many others have found sal- 
vation ; the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart ; your 
conscience has been awakened; you are not far 
from the kingdom of God. It is only a step to 
Christ. It is only, Look and be saved. And yet 
you may turn away from all this and be lost. God 
forbid ! 



NEAR YET OUTSIDE 22T 

It is so easy to be saved that it seems a terrible 
thing when men and women who know their duty 
and see the opportunity fail of it. Not long ago 
a noble Christian woman who is always on the alert 
for an opportunity to point somebody to Christ got 
on the train in Boston, and on entering the car 
found only one vacant seat at the extreme end. 
As she sat down she observed directly opposite an 
old woman in shabby attire and with a most un- 
happy look upon her face. On her head she had 
an old shawl, which with some difficulty she was 
holding in place with her thumb and fingers. The 
good woman watching her took from her bag a 
glass-headed pin, and with a smile passed it to the 
evidently sad-hearted woman opposite. As the 
woman clutched the pin the brakeman called out her 
station, and she rose to go. 

Placing her hands upon the shoulders of the 
lady, the sad-faced woman said, "I needed the pin 
awfully, but I thank you for the smile." 

There was but a moment left. Desiring to 
acquaint the woman with the love of the heavenly 
Father, the lady bent over toward her and said, 
gently and tenderly: "Do you know God? You 
don't look very happy. But I want you to know 
that he cares." 

The brakeman called again the name of the sta- 
tion ; the train had stopped ; and in haste, and with 



THE HEALING OF SOULS 



the shawl over her head, the sad woman passed 
out. 

When the lady reached home she told her mother, 
as her custom was, of the experience she had had; 
and her mother made a note of it in a little book 
in which she wrote the names of those in whom 
her daughter had for any reason become interested. 
Not knowing the name of the stranger, for want of 
a better title she wrote her down as "the woman 
and the pin." 

A few weeks after this the lady was passing 
through the railroad station when she felt some- 
thing pull convulsively at her arm. Turning 
about, she was surprised to see the same old woman ; 
but the sadness was gone and there was a bright 
and happy expression upon her face as she said, 
"I'm in an awful hurry, and I know you be ; but I 
thought I'd just like to tell you that I know God 
now." 

How little light the old woman had compared to 
that which has shone upon you, and yet she had 
enough to find her way into the kingdom. 

I do not suppose there is a single person here this 
evening who would admit for a moment, to anyone 
else or to themselves, that they expect to remain 
all their lives outside of the kingdom of God. You 
fully expect some time to accept Christ's offer to 
be your Saviour. And the great cry of my heart 



NEAR YET OUTSIDE 229 

to-night is, to urge you not to presume on the mercy 
of God, and thus put your immortal soul in peril 
through delay. 

An evangelist who had been holding meetings in 
a Southern city returning to the same city after an 
absence and stopping over between trains, was told 
that there was dying in the hospital a man who had 
been deeply impressed in his meeting but who was 
without hope. He went to see the man and pleaded 
with him to be a Christian, without avail. The time 
came for his train to leave, and the man was still 
unsaved. He said to him, "I will pray with you 
for the last few minutes. If you will accept Christ 
just press my hand." But there came no pressure, 
and as he was leaving the dying man he said to him, 
"Tell me when you will come," and he answered, "I 
think I will come to-morrow." Before the evan- 
gelist reached the end of his journey a telegram 
followed him saying that the man was dead. 
To-morrow for him never came on earth. He had 
been at the very door of the kingdom of heaven, 
and had looked in, and yet failed to enter. Make 
sure of your salvation here and now ! 



XXIV 

THE TRUE TEST OF LOVE 

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love ; even as 
I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.— 
John xv, 10. 

Christ sets up here, as the true test of love 
toward him, that we shall keep his commandments. 
Obedience is always the supreme test of love toward 
one greater than and superior to ourselves. The 
test of love on the part of the strong is that they 
bear the burdens of the weak and use their power 
to protect and save. The test of love on the part 
of the weak toward the great is that they shall show 
reverent obedience. When we come to our rela- 
tion to God this thought is brought to its perfec- 
tion. Christ put aside the glory of heaven and 
gave himself to ransom us from our sins and make 
possible our salvation, and he calls upon us in turn 
to give to him our obedience, not grudgingly, but 
lovingly and with whole-hearted affection. He 
died for us, and he asks us to live for him. 

There is nothing unnatural or foreign to our 
human nature in this desire of Christ's. Love is 
the greatest power in the world to control and 



THE TRUE TEST OF LOVE 231 

master us and cause us to do heroic things that we 
may serve the one who has the right to our 
protection and defense. 

I recall one of the most thrilling experiences of 
my own life, which occurred some years ago on the 
top of a mountain in Idaho. A party of us had 
gone out from Boise City, some thirty miles or 
more, starting very early in the morning, and had 
had our breakfast at the foot of the mountain. 
The ladies of the party and one of the gentlemen 
remained about the camp, while a friend and myself 
were bent on a hunting expedition for prairie 
chickens and sage hens. It was a hot day, and at 
noon we found ourselves well up the mountain, 
several miles from camp, and suffering very much 
for water. I had been in the same part of the 
country in the spring, and knew that there was a 
lake about a mile and a half farther up the moun- 
tain, and remembered also that an old herder had 
told me that it would be a good place for ducks. 
So we pressed on up the mountain, and were soon 
refreshing ourselves in the shade of a big thorn 
tree which stood above a beautiful spring of cold 
water that emptied into the lake. As soon as we 
had rested we began to look about for the ducks, 
and started up several splendid flocks. We shot a 
number of the birds, which fell into the water, some 
not far from the shore, but several of them out in 



232 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

the middle of the lake two hundred yards away. 
The dog we had with us, which we used in hunting 
for prairie chickens, was not accustomed to the 
water, and would not retrieve the birds. My friend 
could not swim, so I swam out after some of the 
birds nearest the shore and brought them in; and 
gaining courage with the exercise I determined to 
secure those in the middle of the lake. I am a 
strong swimmer and could easily have done it but 
for the fact that as I drew near the center I 
found a large mass of fine, slender, vinelike rushes 
which grew up from the bottom of the lake nearly 
to the top of the water. These would wind them- 
selves around my limbs, not only impeding me but 
tending to drag me down. I did not think much 
of it at first, but after I had gathered up the 
ducks and started to return I began to feel their 
influence more and more. Unfortunately I chose 
the nearest way toward the shore, which proved to 
be the side where the weeds grew thickest and ex- 
tended nearly across the lake. I became more 
and more exhausted, and finally shouted to my 
friend that I must surely sink. It was a terrible 
situation for him, for he could not swim a stroke, 
and there was neither pole nor plank nor anything 
within reach for him to help me with. He ran in as 
far as he could wade, but that was only a few yards, 
as the deep water ran up close to the shore. I had 



THE TRUE TEST OF LOVE 233 

dropped the ducks, of course, and had no thought 
of anything except saving my life. 

At last it seemed as though I could struggle no 
more. In my weariness and exhaustion my imag- 
ination pictured the snakelike weeds which were 
tugging at my limbs to be demon fingers drawing 
me under to my death. But just as I was giving 
up all effort, and in a moment more should have 
gone to the bottom, there came up before me a 
picture of my young wife at the camp, all uncon- 
scious of danger or sorrow. In a flash I saw my 
friend going back over the road we had come to tell 
her that I was drowned in that mountain lake. As 
this came to me a new courage for resistance was 
born in me, and I cried, "I must reach shore. For 
her sake I must not give up, and I will not !" 

I have often recalled that incident since then, 
when I have seen a man who was swimming his best 
against odds, trying to keep his head above water, 
when the temptations that were drawing him down 
were fierce and terrible; and when it was thought 
that he was gone, I have seen him strike out again 
with new vigor for the sake of some one that was 
dear to him. 

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ has given you the 
greatest possible pledge of love in his death upon 
the cross. He has died for you, and he asks you to 
live for him. Sin is pulling you downward. 



234 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

Those snakelike vines that twined themselves about 
me in that mountain lake are but a faint illustration 
of the demon fingers of appetite and passion and 
lust that tug away at the hearts of men and women 
and pull them down to their ruin. Christ calls to 
you in the midst of your struggle against odds and 
offers you a help that my friend could not give me. 
You have but to reach out your hand to Christ and 
he will take it and bring you safe to land. Will 
you not give Christ that test of love and obey him 
to-night ? 

We do not treat any other friend who has been 
good and kind with such ingratitude as we treat 
Christ when we fail to confess him and give him 
our service. If anyone has rendered us a great 
service we lose no opportunity to show that we 
remember it tenderly. But Christ did more for you 
than anyone ever did, and yet some of you have 
never done anything to show that you appreciate 
his love and his sacrifice. 

My good Quaker friend, Rev. J. Walter Malone, 
of Cleveland, Ohio, was once on his way home from 
Boston, and had reached the point where the 
Boston and Albany train comes down on the western 
side of the Berkshire Hills. The train was delayed 
for a little, and he stepped out on the bank with 
a look of thoughtfulness on his face, seeking until 
he found a very beautiful wild flower. He plucked 



THE TRUE TEST OF LOVE 235 

it carefully, and bought it with him into the 
train. 

The train sped on its way toward Albany, and my 
friend returned to his book ; but ever and anon an 
observer would have seen him turn from the page 
he was reading to glance with a sort of caressing 
look at the little wild flower which he had plucked 
from the Berkshire hillside. Albany was reached, 
and on up the New York Central toward Buffalo 
rushed the car carrying our friend. Finally he 
laid his book aside, and seemed to be watching very 
carefully the country through which the train was 
passing, as if looking for some remembered land- 
mark. Suddenly a glance of recognition flashed 
in his eyes and glowed upon his face, and, raising 
with one hand the window next to which he was 
sitting, he lifted to his lips the other with the little 
wild flower, and then he leaned far out the window 
until what seemed to be to him the exact place had 
been reached, when the little flower was loosened 
from his fingers and floated off to its resting place 
beside the track. When Mr. Malone drew back 
from the window into his seat the passengers across 
the aisle of the car saw that his face was wet with 
tears, and wondered what the little flower and the 
sudden tears could mean. 

This is what they meant: Some years before a 
train coming down the New York Central ran into 



236 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

a landslide and was wrecked. The engineer was 
pinned under his engine, fatally hurt. When some 
of the passengers ran to him to see whether they 
could do anything for him they saw that the death 
agony was already on his brow. But, forgetting 
himself, the faithful engineer with his last dying 
breath exclaimed, "Flag the oncoming train! 
Flag the oncoming train !" With that he fell back 
and died. My friend Malone was a passenger in 
that oncoming train. He had gathered his wild 
flower to drop as nearly as he could at the spot 
where the engineer's thoughtfulness and fidelity 
had saved his life. And he told me that he never 
passed that spot without wet eyes and a flower to 
drop in memory of the man who, when he was 
dying, was so faithful to the interests of the pas- 
sengers he never saw that he gave the last breath 
of his life to save them. 

Now that all seems natural to us. You say in 
your heart, "Mr. Malone feels just right about 
that engineer, and it would be very ungrateful if he 
should pass that spot dry-eyed and with indiffer- 
ence." But O, my friend, you that have not yet 
confessed Christ, what condemnation do you put on 
yourself when you say that ! Jesus Christ gave his 
own blood on the cross for your salvation, but how 
many times have you been in the church when the 
communion service has been celebrated, and your 



THE TRUE TEST OF LOVE 237 

friends and your neighbors have gone to that com- 
munion and taken the bread and the wine as em- 
blems of the broken body and the shed blood of 
your Saviour, and you have never gone. Yet he 
explicitly asks you to do this. He has asked that 
you do this in remembrance of him. And you have 
always refused to do it. Surely your heart must 
condemn you, and every noble impulse of your 
soul must rise up in judgment upon you for such 
ingratitude. 

I continue to urge upon you that when you con- 
sider what Christ has done for you, that he has 
given himself for your salvation, there is nothing 
unnatural in his asking you for an open confession, 
and that you should let all the world know that you 
love and serve him. 

A man employed at the docks in one of the sea- 
board cities fell into the water, and was with great 
difficulty rescued by a fellow-workman. In the 
evening, a woman with two little children ap- 
proached the rescuer saying, "Are you the man that 
saved my husband ?" 

"Yes, I am." 

"Well, these two little boys want to kiss the man 
that saved their father." 

The workman wiped his face with his sleeve, and 
stooped down while the children kissed him. 

Then the woman, with the great tears in her 



238 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

eyes, said, "And I — I — feel — that — I — I — would 
like to kiss him too." 

"And so ye shall, my lass," and, with an extra 
wipe of his face that lingered on his own wet eyes, 
the man leaned toward the wife, who imprinted on 
his manly cheek a holy, matronly kiss which told 
of her gratitude and love. 

Now, it does not seem unnatural to us that a 
loving woman, overflowing with gratitude for the 
saving of her husband and the father of her sons, 
should have felt and acted like that. But how 
strange it is that one who is responsive to gratitude 
in every other relation can let the years go on and 
fail to show gratitude and love to Him who merits 
it more than anyone else. Give Christ your heart 
to-night. Confess him and obey him, and you shall 
abide in his love. Day by day his love shall shine 
about you and warm your heart and give you peace. 



XXV 

PLUCKING OUT AND CUTTING OFF 

And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee : 
for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and 
not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right 
hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee : for it is profitable 
for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy 
whole body should be cast into hell.— Matthew v, 29, 30. 

The simple, straightforward teaching of these 
strong sentences uttered by our Lord is very plain. 
The great end of life is to have the right of way 
with any sensible, honest Christian man or woman. 
We are not to allow anything to interfere with 
straightforward Christian character and conduct. 
The great thing is to honor God and to live in 
fellowship with and obedient to Jesus Christ. 
First of all, we must be Christian— definitely, genu- 
inely, consciously Christian. Nothing must inter- 
fere with that, and the moment anything does inter- 
fere with it, that moment it must be banished. No 
one can doubt that that is the teaching of this 
passage. These are the words of Jesus and are of 
the first importance to us. 

The first thought suggested to me is that the 
Christian is to live a life peculiarly set apart as the 
disciple of Jesus. We ought not to object to this. 



240 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

We ought to be glad to have some peculiarities 
by which the world will know us as Christians. We 
are to be a "peculiar people, zealous of good 
works." And we should live our Christianity with 
such earnestness and such reverence for what will 
please Christ that it will be noticeable in us, and 
no one among all our acquaintances will ever for a 
moment forget that we are Christians. We may 
be other things, and shall be — merchants and doc- 
tors and lawyers and clerks and students, husbands 
and wives, fathers and mothers and children, neigh- 
bors and friends. We shall have various relations 
in society and in business. But people who think 
of us ought to think the most prominent feature of 
our character is that we are devout friends of 
Christ. Having given Christ our hearts and con- 
secrated our lives to him, we ought never to allow 
ourselves to do anything that will in any way tar- 
nish or soil our personality as Christians. 

No doubt some of you remember Schiller's ballad 
of "The Count of Hapsburg." The count was 
hunting the antelope, and was in the midst of the 
excitement of the wild chase, when he heard the 
sound which told him that the last sacrament was 
being carried to the dying : 
"He heard in the distance a bell twinkling clear, 
And a priest with the host, he saw, soon drawing near." 

And as the priest passed along his way, the count 



PLUCKING OUT— CUTTING OFF 241 

saw that a brook, swollen by the mountain torrents 
created by a great storm, barred his steps. In- 
stantly dismounting from his horse, the count 
placed the priest with his sacred burden on the 
saddle, and thus enabled him to ride in safety over 
the stream and take "provision for the way" to the 
dying man. 

"Then the count made him mount his stately steed, 
And the reins to his hands he confided; 

That he duly might comfort the sick in his need, 
And that each holy rite be provided." 

On the following morning, when the priest brought 
the horse back to the count, with his thanks, the 
count refused to take for common use what had 
borne a burden so holy, and devoted the horse as a 
gift to the service of God in the monastery : 

" 'God forbid that in chase or in battle,' then cried 

The count in humility lowly, 
'The steed I henceforth should dare to bestride, 

That hath borne my Creator so holy. 
And if as a guerdon he may not be thine, 
He devoted shall be to the service divine.' " 

I think we may find a suggestion in the story 

given us in Schiller's song. Having given our 

bodies to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, having 

crowned Christ Lord over all in our hearts, having 

set ourselves apart to wear the colors of Jesus 

Christ and to be known as his servants and friends, 
16 



242 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

we ought not to allow anything in our daily living 
to hinder us from the highest Christian life. 

Our greatest danger often comes to us when sin 
assumes attractive forms. Dr. David Gregg has 
well said: Sin as a caterpillar is bad enough, but 
sin as a butterfly is ever a thousand times worse. 
On every wing there is a picture as varied as the 
rainbow. Every wing is iridescent with different 
lights that shift and change. The poets call the 
butterfly "a flying and flashing gem," and a 
"flower of paradise," and things like that. But 
the butterfly is only a caterpillar beautified with 
wings. It is only a painted worm, decked in a vel- 
vet suit, and adorned with sparkling gems. If sin 
in its grossest form be thus dangerous, what must 
be the unmeasured power of sin when it puts on 
the robes of beauty? Let me remind you of the 
power of sin to make itself attractive, and of the 
power of error to deck itself in robes that resemble 
the robes of truth, so that the truest souls are in 
danger of being deceived. 

It is certainly important that we should not allow 
even beautiful things, and things that are good in 
themselves, to become harmful to us by hindering 
us from doing our duty as Christians. A thing 
does not have to be bad in order to be dangerous for 
us if it step between us and the work which God 
has given us to do. A story is told of Rev. Rich- 



PLUCKING OUT— CUTTING OFF 243 

ard Cecil, that when he went to Cambridge he 
made a resolution restricting himself to a quarter 
of an hour daily in playing the violin, on which 
instrument he greatly excelled, and of which he was 
extravagantly fond; but, on finding it imprac- 
ticable to adhere to his determination, he cut the 
strings and never afterward replaced them during 
his entire term. He did not cut the strings of his 
violin because he thought violin music was bad, but 
because he thought his education was better and far 
more important, and, sweet as the violin music was 
to his ear, he would not have his manhood harmed 
and his career fail of its highest possibility even 
through so sweet a tempter as his violin. 

This same noble man had at first studied to be a 
painter, and retained through life a fondness and 
taste for the art ; but when he became a Christian 
and felt called of God to be a minister of the Gospel 
he gave himself with all his soul to that work. He 
was once called to visit a sick woman in whose, bed- 
room there was a painting which so strongly at- 
tracted his notice that he found his attention 
absorbed by it and diverted from the woman. 
From that moment he formed a resolution of mor- 
tifying a taste which he found so intrusive and so 
obstructive to him in his nobler pursuits, and de- 
termined never again to frequent art exhibitions. 
You may say that that was an extravagant act; 



244 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

but, after all, was it not perfectly consistent? 
The work which God had given him was to him the 
dearest thing in the world. To do his whole duty 
as a minister of Christ was the supreme thing, and 
he was not willing that even so beautiful a thing 
as the love of art should interfere with the single- 
eyed devotion which he owed the Lord Jesus. 

But if we are wise to cut off pure things if they 
interfere with the genuine Christian life on our 
part, how much more evidently wise to cut off those 
things which are impure and degrading in 
themselves. 

An early missionary in Samoa says that when he 
labored at Tutuila he often felt rebuked by the 
strange conduct of a large species of land crab 
called there the malVo. It bores deep into the soil, 
the holes sometimes extending a considerable dis- 
tance. At night this crab loves to make its way 
to the sea for the purpose of laving itself in the 
salt water and drinking it. Now, it sometimes 
happens that, when hurrying through the tall grass 
and fern, some of its legs become defiled by contact 
with filth. So great is the vexation of this crab at 
its mishap that it delays its march to the sea in order 
to wrench off the offending legs! One may some- 
times meet a mutilated individual hobbling along 
minus two or three of its legs — a self-inflicted 
punishment. In some rare instances it has been 



PLUCKING OUT— CUTTING OFF 245 

known to wrench off all its eight legs to escape 
defilement. It is then content to drag itself over 
the ground with considerable difficulty by means of 
its nippers, until it reaches its hole, where it hides 
until the legs partially develop themselves again, 
though not to their original length and beauty. 
"Were we," said the missionary, "as willing to part 
with our favorite sins as this mali'o crab is with its 
defiled limbs, there would be no doubt of our 
reaching heaven ! This is what our Lord means 
by our cutting off our right hand and casting it 
from us." 

My dear friends, I press home this solemn mes- 
sage upon your hearts and consciences. I am not 
asking you what your neighbors think about you 
or about your life. I am asking you what you 
think of yourself in the light of God's word and in 
the light of the Holy Spirit's testimony in your 
own conscience. Do you personally know of any- 
thing which you are doing that you honestly 
believe to be contrary to the will of God? If so, 
I beg of you, at whatever the cost, however it may 
mar or maim your worldly pleasure, to cut that 
thing off, though it be dear as a right hand; to 
pluck it out, though it be tender as a right eye. 
Better to maim your worldly pleasures for a few 
years than to dwarf and despoil your soul through- 
out all eternity. That is not my argument nor 



246 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

my logic, but the argument of Jesus Christ, your 
Saviour. 

Look at it on the other side. Remember, I am 
not asking what anybody else thinks. I am bring- 
ing it home to your own heart. Is there any duty 
which you are leaving undone? Is there work for 
which you are fitted and which would help on God's 
cause that you are refusing to do? Are there 
unconverted neighbors and friends about whom the 
Holy Spirit has said to you, "You ought to win 
that man or that woman to Christ" — and yet you 
do not do it? If this is true, and you stand guilty 
before the bar of your own conscience, as tenderly 
but faithfully I press the matter home upon you, 
then I beg of you to cleanse yourself from this 
failure to do your duty. Cast out the pride, or 
the self-love, or the idleness, or the indifference that 
has kept you from doing your whole duty to Christ 
and to his church. 

Do not let anyone imagine that Christ meant 
these words only for people who are already Chris- 
tians. No, indeed ! They come with the same 
force, or, indeed, with perhaps more force, to those 
of you who have as yet made no effort to do the will 
of God. I come to you with the question: Will 
you obey Christ ? Or will you obey your own will, 
your own appetites, your own sinful desires ? The 
choice is upon you, and you cannot escape it. If 



PLUCKING OUT— CUTTING OFF 247 

you follow jour own sinful path Christ has de- 
clared that there is only one outcome — "the wages 
of sin is death." And if you choose sin rather than 
Christ, the ultimate issue is eternal remorse. 

But I thank God that for the backslidden Chris- 
tian and for the sinner conscious of guilt this is 
not the day of judgment but the day of mercy, 
and you may come this day to the throne of grace 
and find forgiveness for your sins and peace for 
your wounded heart. 

An Alaskan steamer full of gold miners went down 
last August. As the steamer was sinking two miners, 
each one with a huge bag of gold dust, came rush- 
ing on deck and stood side by side. One man, 
taking in the situation, promptly threw away his 
valise containing forty thousand dollars and leaped 
into the lifeboat and was saved. The other man 
could not give up his treasure, and in spite of 
the warning shouts he clung to his heavy bag as 
he jumped and, falling short, went to the bottom 
with his clog of gold. Which example are you 
following? A 



XXVI 

THE DUTY OF CONFESSING CHRIST 

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess 
also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny 
me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in 
heaven.— Matthew x, 32, 33. 

Christianity is a personal religion. It centers 
in Jesus Christ. It is not a mere system of philos- 
ophy. It is faith in Christ as a Person and as a 
Saviour. The Bible from one end to the other is 
a part of the life of Jesus Christ. He is prophe- 
sied about and his coming is foretold in its first 
book, and the scarlet thread that tells of his coming 
into the world and of his suffering and death to 
save men from their sins runs through the whole 
Bible, giving continuity to it all. At first glance 
the Bible is made up of many books written in dif- 
ferent parts of the world and in different ages by 
men who never saw each other and who could not 
have understood each other had they met, since 
they spoke different languages. But the Bible is 
made one book, and the Booh, because all these 
books have some relation to and cluster about the 
coming and the death and the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ. 



DUTY OF CONFESSING CHRIST U9 

Starting with Genesis, you are like a man travel- 
ing over a vast plateau. At first there is only 
prairie, but after a while, far away in the distance, 
you descry faint outlines of a range of mountains. 
On and on you go — down into Egypt, out of 
Egypt with Moses, sojourning for a time in the 
promised land — on and on, until the times of David 
and the Psalms, when the mountains begin to loom 
up in the distance. They are still far away, but 
they are easily seen. Still on you go, through the 
Bible plateau that is ever climbing upward into 
Isaiah, and here you feel that at last you have 
reached the foothills of the great mountains of 
man's salvation. Looking through Isaiah's tele- 
scope of faith, you see the Christ in the distance, 
and you know the kind of man he is to be and the 
fate he is to suffer. On through the minor proph- 
ets with rapid stride, climbing the heights until at 
last you reach the summit of the mountains, and on 
that summit there is a cross, and to that cross is 
nailed Jesus Christ. And you read over that cross, 
"God so loved the world, that he gave his only be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life." On you go 
through the New Testament, and it is all about 
Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles tell how Christ 
kept his promise with the disciples and sent them the 
Holy Spirit, and how under their preaching of 



250 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

Christ and him crucified multitudes were converted. 
Paul's letters to the Romans and to the Corinthians, 
and many others, are written to churches that he 
has founded, to tell them about Jesus, and to build 
them up in the most holy faith. All the other let- 
ters and epistles, not only of Paul, but of John 
and James and Peter, are written to give glory and 
honor to Jesus Christ, and that last book in the 
Bible is a Revelation given to John, the beloved 
disciple, in which Jesus speaks his last words until 
he shall speak to us in heaven. You see it all 
gathers about Jesus Christ. 

Now all this is very significant and has every- 
thing to do with the study of our theme. The 
Christian religion is not a mere system of ethics. 
A man cannot say, "I am living a very good kind 
of a life," and feel that therefore he has done all he 
needs to do. The question comes back at once. 
What have you done with Jesus Christ? Have 
you done your duty toward Jesus ? It is a personal 
religion. What is your personal attitude toward 
Jesus Christ? Have you confessed Jesus Christ as 
your Saviour and your Lord? That is the ques- 
tion of questions, and nothing else counts until that 
is settled. You may be living a very moral sort of 
a life, but if every hour of your life is either 
directly or indirectly an act of the basest ingrati- 
tude to Jesus Christ, who died for you on the cross. 



DUTY OF CONFESSING CHRIST 251 

then your morality is all vitiated and you will have 
nothing with which to excuse yourself when you 
stand in judgment before God. 

Suppose a man should take a beautiful woman 
and lead her to the altar of the church and make 
her his wife through marriage. He promises that 
he will love and cherish her in sickness and in 
health, so long as they both do live. And then he 
goes away from the marriage altar and deserts her. 
He goes off into a distant country, holds no com- 
munication with her ; weeks, and months, and years 
go by ; there are no letters, no confession of her as 
his wife, no support. Would it be enough to say 
to that woman as an excuse for his conduct that he 
has lived a very good kind of a life all the time that 
he has been away from her? He has not stolen, he 
has not blasphemed, and he has been known gener- 
ally as a very honest, good kind of a man. Would 
that be any excuse whatever to the wife who has 
given her love, and plighted her troth, and has had 
a right during all these years that he should openly 
confess himself as her husband and give her his 
affection and support? You know that would be 
no excuse. It would only seem to add to the 
enormity of the man's sin. You would say, If a 
man has enough sense and will-power to live as 
good a life as that, what excuse is there for his 
treating his wife with such shameful neglect? 



252 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

Now, that is a very clear illustration of our case, 
except that the case against you for neglecting 
Jesus Christ is even more serious than that. It is a 
stronger case than the one I have mentioned. 
Christ has done more for you than any wife ever 
did for a husband. Christ, with all the wealth and 
glory of heaven, with all the association and fellow- 
ship of the angels, laid by his glory and his honor 
and came down to earth and suffered and died in 
your behalf. Now he asks your confession, that 
you shall recognize him personally as your Saviour. 
And yet you go on for years with indifference to his 
claims, and when you are approached about it you 
say, "O, I'm not such a bad man, after all. True, 
I am not a Christian exactly, but live pretty near- 
ly as well, possibly better, than some Christians." 
And you actually feel a little proud of that state- 
ment. Yet every day for all these years you have 
been acting ingratitude so shameful that if it were a 
case of one of your neighbors toward another 
neighbor it would shock you in the extreme. My 
friends, it is unworthy of you that you should go 
on showing this ingratitude toward the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

I have heard more people here in New York say 
that they are trying to live Christian lives, who yet 
are failing to give Christ the benefit of an open 
confession by joining the church, than in all my 



DUTY OF CONFESSING CHRIST 253 

ministry prior to this time. This often comes 
about through a man or a woman coming to the 
city from some interior town and being a little 
uncertain at first about permanent settlement here. 
So they drift about from one church to another 
and wait for some future time to decide what they 
will do. At home they felt the responsibilities of 
the church and the power of being openly com- 
mitted to Christ and his cause, which is of such 
value to all of us. But now they are like children 
out of school. They have no pastor and there are 
no church members to whom they feel any sense of 
responsibility. There is a sort of guilty sense of 
freedom about it. They can go where they please, 
and do what they please, and there is nobody to 
ask any questions. There are tens of thousands of 
people in this great city who started here just like 
that, having no expectation of losing their peace 
with God, who are to-night without God and with- 
out hope in the world and have become utterly 
worldly and prayerless, and a multitude more have 
been here from one to five years without trans- 
ferring their membership and are on their road 
to the same destiny unless some message like 
that which I bring you to-night shall be given 
power by the Holy Spirit to recall them to their 
duty. 

As the late Dr. Maltbie D. Babcock said a little 



254 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

while before he died, a man who is trying to be a 
Christian is robbing both the church and Jesus 
Christ by staying outside of the church. You all 
very well know that if everyone who believes in 
Christ and tried to live his life were to do as you 
do who remain without, the church would all go to 
pieces and there would be no churches, no Sunday 
schools, no Christian marriage, no Christian burial. 
And then, very soon, there would be no hospitals, 
no almshouses, no orphan asylums — for these all 
owe their birth to the Christian church and you 
cannot find one of them on earth except where the 
story of the Good Samaritan has gone. Now, by 
staying outside of the church of Christ your con- 
duct is saying just as plainly as words could put it, 
"I do not care whether the church of Christ lives 
or dies." 

And you are robbing the Lord Jesus if by his 
help you are living a life that is better and purer 
and stronger than it would be without him and yet 
not confessing him. What a strange inconsistency 
that you should deny your Lord here when the 
invitation is given to confess him before men, and 
then go home and pray to him before you lie down 
to sleep. You have no right to study the life of 
Jesus and his word, and make your life better and 
truer thereby, and then refuse to Christ the influ- 
ence which would come through your publicly con- 



DUTY OF CONFESSING CHRIST 255 

fessing him by uniting with the church. To stay 
out of the church is not only to rob the church but 
to rob Christ himself. "It is his household of 
faith, his body, his bride. He has identified him- 
self with it in such wonderful intimacy that, when 
Saul struck at the church, Jesus said, 'Why per- 
secutest thou me?' There is no escaping the fact 
that, when you withold your public allegiance from 
the church of Christ, your name from its roll call, 
your loyalty and sympathy and interest and 
strength from its service, you are robbing the 
Redeemer of the church. It is the church of 
Christ, and bears his name in the world, and what 
you do to the church is done to Christ, and what 
you refuse the church you refuse Christ." 

Then think of the privileges you are excluding 
yourself from by refusing to confess Christ. I 
have now been in the ministry for a good many 
years. For thirty years I have been watching these 
things, and I have never seen one victorious, tri- 
umphant Christian, one who had been commanding 
power and influence, that remained outside of the 
church. Confess the Lord Jesus Christ. Commit 
yourself to him. Run Christ's flag up to the mast- 
head of your life, and then you can claim Christ's 
promise that if you will confess him on earth he 
wil] confess you in heaven. 

I do not doubt if I were to come to some of you 



256 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

this evening and ask you to make a public confes- 
sion of Jesus you would say, "I am not good 
enough," or "I am not fit." How absurd that is 
when you stop to reflect on it ! It is like saying, 
"I do not know enough to go to school," or "I am 
not athlete enough to go to a gymnasium," or, "I 
cannot swim well enough to go to a swimming 
teacher." You know a boy goes to school just be- 
cause he is ignorant; he goes to the gymnasium 
because he is not an athlete; he goes to the swim- 
ming master because he cannot swim. So when you 
tell me you are not good enough to begin to be a 
Christian, my reply is, "It is not your goodness, it is 
Christ's goodness." Take a good look at Christ 
to-night. Is he worthy that you should confess 
him as your Saviour and your Lord ? If that is so, 
give him your confession to-night, and trust to his 
honor, which has never been broken, that he will for- 
give your sins and save your soul. 

If I were to go to some others you would say, "I 
will be a Christian some day, but I am not ready 
yet." My friend, that means that you are in a 
most dangerous situation. Some one well says, 
"To-morrow is the road to Never." It is impossible 
to make decisions for to-morrow. To-day is the 
time for decisions. Act now, to-night, and every- 
thing that is good enough to be true is possible for 
your soul. Let things you don't understand take 



DUTY OF CONFESSING CHRIST 257 

care of themselves. Just fix your eyes on Jesus. 
Come to him. 

A man who has been an unbeliever for many years 
was recently led out of the darkness of infidelity 
and became a very happy Christian. He wrote a 
little poem telling how he found light : 

"I have tried in vain a thousand ways 
My fears to quell, my hopes to raise; 
But what I need, the Bible says, 
Is Jesus. 

"My soul is night, my heart is steel, 
I cannot see, I cannot feel, 
For light, for life, I must appeal 
To Jesus. 

"He died, he lives, he reigns, he pleads, 
There's love in all his words and deeds, 
There's all a guilty sinner needs 
In Jesus. 

"Though some should sneer, and some should blame, 
I'll go with all my guilt and shame, 
I'll go to him because his name 
Is Jesus." 
17 



XXVII 

THE MAN WITH A BAD EYE 

The light of the body is the eye : therefore when thine eye is single, 
thy whole body also is full of light ; hut when thine eye is evil, thy 
body also is full of darkness.— Luke xi, 34. 

Christ compares the eye to the conscience and 
the light of the world about us to the spiritual light 
which falls from his word and from the direct work- 
ing of the Holy Spirit on our consciences. It is a 
very interesting illustration. If the human eye is 
protected and cared for and given proper exercise 
and training it is a marvelous machine. Science 
has never found anything to equal the mechanism 
of the human eye. But the eye, in order to do its 
work well, must be used, and it must be protected 
from injury. It is very delicate and very sensitive. 
It takes a very small thing to put it out of order. 
I remember once going out on a flat car attached to 
a passenger train when coming around the rapids 
of the famous Cascades of the Columbia. The 
scenery is among the finest in the world, and I was 
expecting a most enjoyable experience. But as 
we started off a little cinder from the locomotive, 
not so large as the head of a pin, lighted in one of 
my eyes, and it so darkened it and aroused such 



THE MAN WITH A BAD EYE 259 

sympathy in the other that I clung for dear life to 
a stanchion on the car and passed the entire seven 
miles through that wonderland of beauty without 
even a glimpse of it. When the cinder was removed 
I was astonished to see that it was only a little mote, 
but it had closed all the world for me. Because of 
it the mountains were as though they were not and 
the waterfalls lost all their attraction and their 
beauty. My light was changed to darkness be- 
cause for the time my eye was evil. 

Now, our Saviour says that it is like that with 
the conscience. God speaks to us through the con- 
science as the world of nature speaks to us through 
the eye. Through the Bible, through his provi- 
dential action in our daily life, and through the 
voice of the Spirit speaking to our inmost self, God 
is giving us light. He thus enlightens our under- 
standing. He arouses our affections. He inspires 
and stirs the will toward action. Our emotions are 
warmed into being. I do not mean to indicate by 
this that God will ever do this to such an extent that 
a man cannot resist and will be compelled to be 
good. That would be contrary to all the Bible 
teaching. And we need to remember that in our 
prayer for other people. We must not think that 
God does not answer our prayers when we pray 
earnestly and faithfully for the conversion of 
friends and they yet remain unconverted. There is a 



260 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

point beyond which even Almighty God cannot go 
in dealing with a human soul. He cannot force 
our will. If he could do that, then we should only 
be like a cog in a wheel. We could not help our- 
selves and would not be accountable or responsible 
for what we did. But each one of us is conscious 
that, though we may be greatly moved upon by 
influences without us and within us, there remains in 
our own hearts, in our own wills, the power to choose. 
And so all we can do is to pray God to move upon 
the heart, to arouse the conscience, and to speak to 
the inmost soul of our friend and give him or her 
once again the chance to choose. But notwithstand- 
ing these prayers, and despite the moving of the 
Spirit of God, it is possible for a man or a woman 
surrounded by the most gracious influences to close 
the eye of the conscience and steel the heart against 
the divine urging and be lost at last. 

The human eye is capable of great development. 
The eye that is carefully cherished and steadily 
cultivated becomes very far-reaching in its power 
and capable of seeing with wonderful accuracy. 
The same is true of the eye of the soul. If from 
childhood the conscience is developed by prayer 
and study of the Bible and meditation which listens 
for the voice of the Spirit, so that a man is ever 
ready to obey the voice of God, the conscience be- 
comes radiant with light, illuminating the whole 



THE MAN WITH A BAD EYE 261 

nature of the man. You remember that among the 
early preachers of Christ Philip was very popular 
in a certain city, and was having great success and 
making many converts. But he was suddenly made 
to feel that the Spirit desired him to go away into 
the desert, and he went without murmuring or 
questioning, and it was while he was there that the 
treasurer of Queen Candace came driving along in 
his chariot, and again it was no outward voice, but 
the Spirit speaking in Philip's conscience, that told 
him to join himself with this man for special duty. 
As he came up beside the chariot, he found that the 
man was reading from the book of Isaiah a proph- 
ecy concerning Christ. He inquired of the man if 
he understood what he was reading. The treasurer 
then begged him to come up and sit with him in his 
chariot, and Philip took that prophecy for his text, 
and did not leave him until he was happily con- 
verted to Christ. Now, Philip was sensitive to the 
Spirit. His eye was single in doing the right ; to 
serve God and do his will was the single great pur- 
pose of his life. There was nothing to darken his 
soul. No selfishness obstructed the sunshine, and 
so his conscience was sensitive to God's voice. 

There is something quite significant in this phra- 
seology of the text, "When thine eye is single." If 
a man simply wants to know what is right, if a man 
is honestly seeking the truth and does not fail to 



262 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

act on the truth when he finds it, then spiritual light 
will flood his soul ; but if a man is unwilling to face 
the truth, or if, finding the truth, he will not act 
upon it, conscience is darkened. By refusing to do 
the right when we know it we gradually lose the 
power to discern the right, so that after a while the 
spiritual judgment becomes so warped and the soul 
so full of darkness that we see men and women who 
were once of good moral intelligence calling good 
evil and evil good. The eye was not single, but 
partial, and so its power of discernment was 
destroyed. 

Dr. Robert South says that every single gross act 
of sin is much the same thing to the conscience that 
a great blow or fall is to the head ; its stun bereaves 
it of all use of its senses for a time. Thus David's 
murder and adultery so mazed and even stupefied his 
conscience that it lay as it were in a swoon and void 
of all spiritual sense for almost a whole year. For 
we do not find that he came to himself or to any true 
sight or sense of his horrid guilt till Nathan the 
prophet came and roused him up with a message 
from God. Such a terrible deadness and stupefac- 
tion did those two sins bring upon his soul that there 
is no evidence that David had for many months any 
keen conception of the horrible character of his 
conduct. The reason of this was that his conscience 
had been stunned and could not so much as open 



THE MAN WITH A BAD EYE 263 

its eyes so as to be able to look either upward or 
inward. This was his sad and forlorn condition 
notwithstanding he had been graciously taught of 
God all his life. He was now past the fiftieth year 
of his age, and yet this one falling into sin so dead- 
ened the spiritual principle within him and left him 
so benumbed and blind and insensible that if it had 
not been for the special message of God through 
the voice of Nathan he would no doubt have never 
been recovered and would have died unrepentant 
and unforgiven. 

Now, it may be that I am speaking to some one 
here who has been stricken by some besetting sin that 
has separated you from the peace of God and 
broken all connection between your heart and 
heaven, as David's sins did for him. If that is so, 
I pray God that he may commission me as he did 
Nathan, and that the Holy Spirit may use the mes- 
sage this evening, and stand before the doorway of 
your soul, and say with power to start you to 
action the words that broke the deadly lethargy of 
the sinning king, "Thou art the man !" 

There is another sort of danger to the human eye 
that comes more slowly. Sometimes a film grows 
over the eye and covers it. It does not make a man 
blind all at once. I have a friend who has been 
slowly getting blind for ten years, and he can yet 
see a little, though very dimly. So it is often the 



264 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

case that actual sin and refusal to obey God's com- 
mandments gradually obscures and darkens the 
light of the conscience. Doing wrong and repeat- 
ing the act over and over brings a film over the eye 
of the soul. Being aroused to see one's duty, hav- 
ing the emotions stirred, being impressed with 
Christ's claims, and yet refusing to grant them, pro- 
duces gradually but surely a cataract on the eye of 
the soul that no human power can remove. Jere- 
miah sets forth clearly the deadly character of such 
a habit of evil when he says, "Can the Ethiopian 
change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then 
may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do 
evil." 

I am sure that I speak to some of you this evening 
who have already the film growing over the eye of 
your conscience. You are not afraid of sin as you 
once were. Evil things do not shock you as they 
once did. You imagine sometimes that the reason 
for this is that they are really not so bad as you 
thought they were. There you mistake. The 
sin is just as bad as ever ; but there has grown a film 
over your spiritual eyesight, so that you see now but 
dimly what you saw more clearly in your childhood 
and early youth. You are slowly growing blind. 
As over my friend's eyes the film has been growing 
that shuts out the light of heaven and makes it im- 
possible for him longer to behold with any clearness 



THE MAN WITH A BAD EYE 265 

the people whom lie meets, so your disobedience to 
God's law has gradually caused a film to come over 
the eye of your soul, and you have but to go on until 
morally you will become entirely blind, and will call 
good evil and evil good. 

When a cataract forms over the eye there is only 
one source of help, and that is a most skillful sur- 
geon who can take the obstruction off with a sharp 
knife and give the eye again the chance to behold 
the light of day. That is now done, sometimes 
with wonderful success. In the spiritual world 
there is only one Physician who has ever been able 
to do that — Jesus Christ. But he has that power. 
He who opened the eyes of many blind men during 
his earthly ministry has power to remove the cata- 
ract from the eye of the soul and make your con- 
science sensitive and clear, so that it shall behold 
the spiritual light and flood the soul again with its 
knowledge. Thank God, you may have the services 
of this Great Physician, and have them freely this 
very hour. Pie said of himself that he came as a 
Physician to the sick. And just because you need 
him sorely he will fly to your aid at your cry for 
help. 



XXVIII 

THE GREATEST THIEF 

But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth 
his coming.— Matthew xxiv, 48. 

Some one has well said that the value put upon 
time indicates the high or low water mark of any 
civilization. The American Indian counted time 
only by suns and moons. No barbarous people 
have ever had any timepiece, and it is only the 
highly developed and cultivated civilization which 
measures time by seconds. Booker Washington 
says it marked a great epoch in his advancement 
and in the growth of his manhood when he began to 
observe regular hours for his meals. 

This element of timeliness and the importance of 
promptness in doing our duty runs through all our 
lives, and we never can escape from it. A prom- 
inent minister recently stated in a public address 
that he shook his fist at the chapel bell when it was 
ringing for the last recitation of his academic 
course and said, "I have been ruled by that bell 
seven long years; but, thank God, I am free to- 
day." He soon found out his mistake. The moment 
he plunged into his lif ework he found that he was 
more than ever under obligation to measure every 



THE GREATEST THIEF 267 

hour, and carefully guard all the moments, and 
observe every appointment of duty. 

The Bible lays tremendous emphasis on our being 
prompt in our decisions and decisive in all our 
actions. Scattered all through the Bible are the 
words, "now," "immediately," "straightway," and 
other words of the same import. And this is not 
unnatural, for all life is pervaded with this im- 
portance of prompt and decisive action. You let 
any clerk get into the habit of being ten minutes 
late at his place of business, and he is absolutely out 
of the race for any great promotion. A feeling of 
charity in a kind-hearted employer may keep him 
on for a while, but he will never win success. 

Now, all this has to do directly with our theme. 
This is a striking story which Christ tells here. He 
presents a man who has been absent from his home 
and has left it in charge of a servant who is tempo- 
rarily steward over his whole household. He is gone 
a long time, but the steward takes care of every- 
thing with exactly the same fidelity that he would 
have shown if the master had been present, so that 
when the master comes home he finds everything in 
first-class condition and bestows on the servant great 
reward. 

Then our Lord turns to the other side and tells us 
a story of another kind of servant. He had exactly 
the same opportunity that was given to the first, 



268 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

but he said within himself, "My lord delayeth his 
coming," and so he began to do as he pleased. He 
gave himself up to pleasure and to riot. He was 
careless as to whether his life and conduct were such 
as would be pleasing to his master. And so, one 
day when he was not thinking about it, when every- 
thing was at loose ends, his master came back, and 
his punishment of that servant was grievous. 

Now, the message is very simple, and it ought to 
be very profitable to us. The greatest thief in the 
world is delay. I speak to many of you this even- 
ing who know enough of the Gospel and believe 
sufficiently in Jesus Christ to be saved if you would 
act at once on your knowledge and obey Christ. 
The lack of decision is the cause of the doom of 
thousands. This is true in every department of 
life. Goethe says that there are three essential 
elements of any strong and moving story. It must 
illustrate enterprise, it must involve the incurring 
of peril, and it must result in the achievement of 
success. You cannot make anything moving and 
heroic out of the lives of men who took no risks and 
always sailed so near the shore that they could 
easily swim to land in the event of disaster to their 
craft. Mr. Beecher used to say that the most dan- 
gerous thing that happens to any man is coming 
into the world at all; but having come, and being 
here at all, you find yourself in conditions in which 



THE GREATEST THIEF 269 

there are no "dead certainties." You simply have 
to act with your best judgment upon the light you 
have, and take the consequences. Now, I do not 
believe there is a man here to-night who would not 
become a Christian at once, before leaving the house, 
if he acted on his judgment as a wise man acts in 
other things. It is the power of prompt decision 
that makes the difference between success and fail- 
ure every day in the week. 

When Balzac's father tried to discourage his son 
from the pursuit of literature he said to him, "Do 
you know that in literature a man must be either 
a king or a beggar?" "Very well," replied the boy, 
"I will be a king." His disgusted parent left him 
to his fate in a garret ; but he had made his decision, 
and he fought his way to victory. So there have 
been men whose companions have said to them, "To 
be a great Christian is a fine thing, but to fail at 
it as some people do is disgusting." And the 
young man has said with decision, "By the help of 
God I will be a genuine Christian," and has gone 
forth from that hour to the peace and happiness, 
the struggles and victories, of a noble Christian life. 

Lord Roscbery not long ago reminded his fellow- 
countrymen of what he calls their great national 
danger. He says it is "self-complacency." How-/^- 
ever that may be with the English nation, I am sure 
it is true of a great many people who are letting 



270 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

the years go by without becoming Christians. Be- 
cause God has been so kind as to hedge your life 
about with praying parents and Christian friends 3 
so that you have been kept mercifully from falling 
into outbreaking and shameful sins, you have a cer- 
tain pride and self-complacency about your con- 
dition, when it is quite probable that at the heart 
you are farther from God and are in greater danger 
of being lost than is some poor drunkard or dis- 
couraged woman whom you count as a much greater 
sinner than yourself. Surely there are no sadder 
cases than these men and women who have had the 
Gospel light shining about them through all their 
lives, and who know their duty, and yet self-com- 
placently take their own time, and fancy that their 
Lord delays his coming and that there is no need 
that they should make haste. I would to God that 
I knew how to arouse you and make you see your 
danger ! 

There is an old story of two painters who were 
frescoing a magnificent cathedral. One of them 
had just finished a very artistic figure, and had 
stepped back to survey it. So absorbed was he that 
he forgot the high scaffolding upon which he stood. 
He was standing on the very edge. One move more 
and he must be hurled to death. His companion 
saw his danger, but dared not speak lest he should 
lose his balance. As a last resort he seized a wet 



THE GREATEST THIEF 271 

brush and flung it against the wall, spattering the 
beautiful picture with unsightly blotches of color- 
ing. The imperiled man sprang forward to save 
his work, but it was too late; it was gone. He 
turned upon his friend to upbraid him, when he was 
told of the death he had escaped. And then, with 
tears of gratitude, he blessed the hand that saved 
him even at such a cost. O that I could so arouse 
you out of this deadly lethargy, this self-com- 
placency which is putting your immortal soul in 
peril, and win you to accept Christ and give your 
heart to him! I know you would thank me for- 
ever for that greatest of all blessings one human 
being can bestow upon another. 

Delay is perilous from every standpoint. It is 
not only that life is uncertain and may be cut off at 
any moment. Even if life be prolonged there is 
no certainty that the Spirit of God will ever strive 
with your soul again as he is striving now. Never 
again may you have an opportunity so favorable 
to accepting Christ and receiving the pardon of 
your sins as you have this very hour. 

Dr. John Watson tells an exceedingly interesting 
and touching story of an event which occurred in 
his own ministry. He was called to go and see a 
young man who was ill. When he went into the 
room the young man said, "Now, I have heard you 
preach, and I wanted to see you. I do not want to 



n% THE HEALING OF SOULS 

be a humbug, and I will tell you the situation 
There were days in the past when I wished to be a 
Christian., but I thought that, on the whole, I would 
rather have a few years to myself. I have not 
made a beast of myself, but it has been a selfish life. 
Now I am dying, and although the doctors will not 
tell me the truth, I know I will die within a few 
days." And he did die within a few days. He 
told Dr. Watson a number of things he wanted him 
to do for him, and he promised to attend to them. 
Then the minister said to him, "What about other 
things?" Then the young man responded sadly, 
"I have thought it all over, and I have led a selfish 
life, and I have done mean things sometimes, but 
I will not do the meanest thing I could conceive — 
take the last three days of my life and offer them 
to Christ when I have had twenty-three years of 
life that I used for myself." From that position 
Dr. Watson could not move him by any argument 
he knew or used, and the man died without any hope 
in Christ and expressing the infinite regret that he 
had not accepted Christ when he was well and 
strong. 

My friends, do you intend to follow that exam- 
ple? Surely you do not wish to do that. Then 
why will you not act now? Now while your heart 
is tender, while your conscience is awake, now is the 
time to accept Christ and be forgiven. This may 



THE GREATEST THIEF 273 

be the greatest hour in the history of the world for 
jou, and it will be if you make it the hour of your 
salvation» 

I feel very keenly that it is a critical moment for 
some souls. One of the great poets saved some of 
his most lofty visions by leaping out of bed and 
seizing pen and paper to preserve the thought 
which came to him in the silent watches of the night, 
and which he knew if allowed to escape could never 
be recalled on any to-morrow. There is a time 
when the harbor is open, when the wind is blowing, 
when the tide is running in, and everything speeds 
the ship through the channel into the haven of rest. 
This is such an hour, and such an opportunity. 
Delay not, but decide and act. 
18 



XXIX 

CHRIST'S BUSINESS IN HEAVEN 

In my Father's house are many mansions : If it were not so, I 
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go 
and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto 
myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.— John xiv, 2, 3. 

Take it all in all, there never was a more remark- 
able statement than this made by anyone in human 
form. Here is a man who is being intrigued against, 
and hounded by his enemies, and who admits that 
he is soon to be put to death, and that the crue} 
death of the cross, and yet he talks about it with 
all the calmness and courage of a conqueror who 
has achieved the purposes intended by a great 
campaign and is now taking his departure to the 
great kingdom from whence he came. Christ 
tells his disciples that they are not to permit their 
hearts to give way to trouble, for he has overcome 
the world, and through him they shall overcome. 
Although he departs from them, he will not lose 
interest in them, and he will never go beyond the 
power to reach them with aid and comfort. 
Heaven is his native homeland, and from that cen- 
tral capital of the universe he will send forth mes- 
sengers with comfort and blessing to them. What- 



CHRIST'S BUSINESS IN HEAVEN £75 

soever they ask of the Father in his name will be 
granted. 

But there is another significant statement in our 
text which sets forth the important business of 
Christ in heaven as related to us. Christ assures 
these troubled disciples that heaven is a splendid 
reality. He calls heaven the "Father's house," and 
says that there are many mansions. Then follows 
a very beautiful and loving touch that is just like 
Jesus. He says, "If it were not so, I would have 
told you." The more you study that phrase the 
more beautiful it will seem to you. Its meaning is 
evident. If there had been no heaven, no land of 
beauty and glory, for which God was redeeming and 
developing and training his sons and daughters, 
Christ would have told us. He would not have 
let us go on hoping and wishing and longing for 
the immortal life, wondering if there was a future 
and if that future was kind, unless it were true. 
With what hope this fills our hearts. It gives us 
the right to believe that anything we hope for and 
long for in our thoughts of heaven shall be true 
if it is good enough to be true. You need not 
dream about some loved desire concerning heaven 
and then say sadly, "It is too good to be true," for 
if it is good enough to be true it may be yours if 
you are true to God. I am sure that our Saviour, 
who is fitting up heaven for us, will meet the long- 



276 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

ings of every true heart. Better even than our 
longings and our dreams shall be the realization 
if we are faithful to Christ. Perhaps you have 
seen the little poem written by Henry Rowe voicing 
the old Scotch mother's query, "Will the Heather 
Bloom in Heaven?" 

"Th,e sunset rays were falling across 

The slopes of the Grampian hills, 
And the deepening shades 'mid the firs and moss 

Were shrouding the rocks and rills. 
In a cottage set on the edge of the glen, 

By the side of the sobbing sea, 
A soul was passing beyond the ken 

Of the world to eternity. 

" 'O! laddie,' she whispered, 'in heaven above 

D'ye think that the heart of God 
Would find delight in the flowers we love, 

That bloom from the highland clod? 
Amid all the beauty up there, dear lad, 

D'ye think that he'll find some room 
In the fields of glory to make us glad 

With heather and with broom? 

" 'Will the bonnie Scotsman have a ham« 

'Mid lakes and the craggy glen? 
Will the love of my laddie be the same, 

Only stronger, dear heart, then? 
And among the robes of the ransomed, lad, 

Which the angel spirits wear, 
Must we always miss the highland plaid 

When we cross the moors up there? 



CHRIST'S BUSINESS IN HEAVEN 277 

" 'Will the bagpipes play on the streets of gold? 

Will the skylark greet the morn? — 
O! I love them all, for I'm growing old 

In the hame where I was born. 
O laddie, my heart is sair awry, 

I'm only a puir, weak lass, 
But I fear me I'll breathe a homesick sigh 

As through heaven's glad gate I pass.' 

"The whisper ceased, and the life went out 

With the dying light of day, 
But the sainted soul we cannot doubt 

Has found its heavenward way; 
And we may believe in those distant fields, 

Which the hand of God has sown, 
The Scottish heather its beauty yields 

Not far from the great white throne." 

There is something very comforting in the way- 
Christ makes the statement here that the great 
purpose of his leaving the earth and taking up his 
abode in heaven was that he should there look after 
the interests of the men and women on earth who 
have confessed his name and are seeking day by 
day to live in a way pleasing to him. These were 
by no means ideal men to whom Christ was speak- 
ing. Peter had yet in him those seeds of disloyalty 
that led him to deny his Lord, and Thomas had in 
him the doubt that gave him those awful days of 
gloom after Christ's death and resurrection. But, 
imperfect as they were, they had turned their faces 
honestly, seeking to know Christ and to do his will, 



278 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

and Christ knew that through his kindness and 
loving sympathy they would come to be grand and 
noble men, fitted for heaven and eternal glory. So 
Christ looks at you to-night. And while he sees all 
your sinfulness, and knows all the rough edges of 
your hot and fiery temper, knows every rotten spot 
of self-indulgence there is in your nature, and while 
it looks more horrible to him than it does to you, 
he also sees what you do not — that through his love 
and forgiveness and divine culture there may be 
developed in you a pure and holy man or a noble 
and saintly woman with whom the angels will be 
glad to associate in heaven. As Michael Angelo 
took the old refuse block of marble that many a 
poorer sculptor had rejected because it had a flaw 
in it, and chiseled from it his matchless David which 
stands on the heights above Florence — dared to 
choose it because he saw what his skill and genius 
could bring out of it in spite of its flaws — so Jesus 
Christ sees that though your temper be as quick 
and your disposition as erratic as Simon Peter's, 
and though your blood is as hot for sudden anger 
as John's, and though you be as ready to doubt and 
have "the blues" as Thomas, his divine genius can 
make out of you Peter, "the Rock," or John, "the 
beloved disciple." 

So if you will this night turn your face toward 
Christ, and humbly give your heart to him in re- 



CHRIST'S BUSINESS IN HEAVEN 279 

pentance and faith, he will lay in heaven the foun- 
dation of a mansion for you. For that is Christ's 
great business in heaven. He is there preparing 
places for his people. No city on earth is growing 
like heaven. The mansions are going up as they 
are being ordered from all over the world. How 
many have begun to build during the last few weeks 
on orders breathed from the prayerful lips and 
humble broken hearts of those kneeling about this 
altar! And Christ is ready to start others to- 
night. When the foundation of a new mansion in 
heaven is laid there is great joy about it. There is 
no selfishness about Christianity. The citizens of 
heaven are not afraid that the city will be over- 
crowded, and the angels watch with glad hearts 
and joyous eyes the turning of a face toward 
heaven. Jesus says that there is joy among the 
angels over one sinner that repenteth, and the mo- 
ment a man turns from his sin and seeks to follow 
Christ it is in reality the beginning of a journey 
toward heaven, and as he journeys thither his home 
is preparing for him. 

What a home that will be ! I suppose none of us 
has ever had a home that exactly suited. I have 
never seen one that I would not change if it could be 
done without any expense or annoyance. I have had 
the privilege in Europe of looking over many of the 
famous old palaces, some of which have played a 



280 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

great part in history; the homes where kings were 
born, and lived, and feasted, and ruled, and died. 
But I never saw a palace so splendid but what, if I 
were to move into it, and undertake to make a home 
of it, I should want to change it a good deal. We 
are hard to suit in the matter of homes. We know 
that by the way people move about in this city. 
Every week we see thousands moving from one 
street to another, from one apartment house to 
another. People stop a while, and then move on, 
leaving the ills they have to dare other ills they 
know not of. But if you will give your heart to 
Christ, and become his true and sincere friend, some 
of these days you shall have a home that you will 
never become tired of for a single hour. Christ 
knows exactly what you need. He is the only one 
in the world who knows all your little peculiarities, 
and he will fit your individuality in your heavenly 
home. How tender those words of promise that as 
one whom his mother comforteth God will comfort 
those that trust him! You may depend upon it 
that if you will give up your heart to follow Christ 
the home which he will fit for you in heaven will 
satisfy all your needs. Your fondest dreams shall 
be more than met in your heavenly home. 

And then this other promise, what infinite sweet- 
ness breathes from it — "And if I go and prepare a 
place for you, I will come again, and receive you 



CHRIST'S BUSINESS IN HEAVEN 281 

unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be 
also." Christ is lonely in heaven without us. He 
wants us with him. Repent of your sins and ask 
for forgiveness, and his love will envelop you with 
great strong arms of kindness, and he will lead you 
onward and upward until he receives you in heaven 
at last. This takes away all the bitterness and all 
the dark forebodings about death. Without Christ, 
and a hope of heaven made clear and definite 
through him, death is an awful thing. I do not 
wonder that death has been called "the king of 
terrors," for it is an awful leap into the dark with- 
out Christ. But the moment you open your heart 
to this loving promise of Christ's the morning 
breaks and the shadows flee away. Death will come 
to us as it does to other people, but Christ will come 
with it, and he will receive us unto himself. And 
all our loved ones who have loved Christ, who have 
gone on before us — they, I am sure, will come with 
him when he comes to bid us welcome. When I 
went to California two or three years ago to visit 
the old home fireside, as the train pulled up at the 
little country station there stood my father with his 
long white beard, and my mother, and my sisters, 
waiting to meet me and to give me welcome. How 
precious it was to meet them thus on the way, at 
the very threshold of the home farm. So it will 
be with the heavenly meeting. If I were to go 



282 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

back to that little country station now, that white- 
haired father would not be there to meet me. And 
as I looked into the faces of the others the tears 
would come into all our eyes because of his absence. 
But if death should come to me to-night, and I 
should go out on the last journey, I know that, 
standing beside my Saviour and his, I should find 
my father, and my own little boy, and a great 
throng of loved ones to whom I have said farewell 
and whom Christ has been receiving into the heav- 
enly home through all these years. 

Dear friends, we want you with us ; with all our 
hearts we long to persuade you to accept our Lord 
and know the tender love and comfort which has 
been the sweetest thing that has ever come into any 
of our lives. He has loved you, and redeemed you, 
and if you will confess him to-night, and turn from 
your sin, all the comforts of his grace and all the 
glories of heaven may be yours. 



XXX 

THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 

But lie that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never 
forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.— Mar k iii, 29. 

This is a sad and solemn theme. Sin is the trag- 
edy of the world. It casts its black clouds athwart 
the sky and shuts out the sun. It turns life's 
sweetest honey into gall. No life is so full of 
youthful promise that its poison cannot change it 
into an old age bitter and revolting. And here we 
are face to face with sin at its climax. What is this 
unpardonable sin ? 

When we undertake to look for an answer we 
must look at the remark which St. Mark, who writes 
the story, adds immediately following the quota- 
tion from Christ. That shows us what it was that 
drew out the remark in regard to the unpardonable 
snio Mark says that Jesus said this because the 
Pharisees were saying, "He hath an unclean spirit." 
Jesus had been working a series of miracles which 
every unbiased mind could see were divine. They 
were wrought by the power of God. The Holy 
Spirit's presence was in every one of them. As 
men looked on these miracles the first honest words 
that sprang to their lips were, "Is not this the Son 



284 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

of God?" Now, the Pharisees believed also that 
Jesus had divine power. But if they yielded to 
that conviction, and let the popularity of Christ 
spread everywhere among the common people, their 
own power was gone, and the perfect purity and 
genuineness of Christ would shame the hollow for- 
malism of their daily lives. They determined 
therefore, at any cost, even if they had to sacrifice 
truth and honesty, that they would stamp out this 
growing faith in the hearts of the common people, 
which would soon center with great force on 
Christ. Hence they began with one accord to 
declare among the people that the miracles which 
Christ had been working were not the work of the 
Holy Spirit, but the work of the devil. It was 
a reckless piece of business. They knew they were 
lying. But they set their teeth together and went 
on, determined not to yield to Christ. They knew 
the truth, but they closed their eyes against it, 
and vowed it was not the truth, but falsehood. 
Now it was this that drew out Christ's remark 
about the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, a sin 
which could never be forgiven. It was opposition 
to truth and goodness on the part of men who knew 
better, but who determined to pursue the false way 
because it pleased their own selfishness. This in- 
terpretation is entirely supported by another say- 
ing of Christ's on the same subject, when he says, 



THE UNPARDONABLE SIN £85 



"Whoso shall cause one of these little ones which 
believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him, that 
a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, 
and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea." 

An English minister, Rev. Henry T. Hooper, 
whose comment on this subject I have been recently 
reading, raises these very pertinent questions in 
regard to this incident: Had these men already 
committed the unpardonable sin? Is it an act of 
sin or is it a state of sin that we are to regard as 
hopeless? Were these men already doomed, or 
were they as yet but nourishing a tendency which 
was in the direction of despair ? A single act of sin 
indicates an evil state of character; an act of sin 
repeated indefinitely and of set purpose indicates an 
evil state of character which is in the way of be- 
coming permanent. No single incident, perhaps, of 
blasphemy was unpardonable; had the incidents 
been so multiplied and so aggravated by deliberate 
repetition as to have become a settled habit which 
was already irreparable ? 

These are questions only important to us as they 
throw light on our own danger and warn us of the 
possibility of coming to such a state of hopelessness. 

Suppose a man among us, religiously nurtured 
from childhood, inheriting good and holy traditions 
from a Christian father and mother, and perhaps 
their fathers and mothers before them — suppose 



286 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

such a man, so brought up, giving himself to delib- 
erate and repeated sin, knowing it to be sin, against 
the clear light of conscience deliberately going 
over to the devil's side; suppose, not content with 
that, he of set purpose and by deliberate policy 
seeks to pervert others, and especially to pervert 
simple, childlike believers, not once only, but by 
settled and continuous and diabolical falsehoods. 
Is it too much to say that such a man's case is in the 
way of becoming hopeless? His very existence is 
a continual act of sin. 

The effect of sin in any sinning man or woman is 
cumulative. For there is surely a progression in 
sinfulness as there is in holiness. The man who 
goes on disobeying God cannot remain as good as he 
is. He becomes a little harder at heart, a little 
more dead at conscience, a little less likely to repent 
and become a Christian every day of his life. At 
what stage in a sinful man's career his sin reaches 
the climax when it is unpardonable it is impossible 
to say. Whatever interpretation of this passage 
we may adopt, you and I do not know the man so 
utterly vile and abandoned that we should think 
him beyond the possibility of pardon. He may 
exist, but judgment is not with us. Of one thing, 
however, we are certain — so long as the Gospel 
message is still attractive, however little, in a sinful 
man's eyes, this fatal climax has not yet come to 



THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 287 

him. Fear of the worst is the last barrier against 
the arrival of the worst ; desire for the best, however 
feeble that desire may be, is the proof that the best 
is still possible for us. No man is yet unpardon- 
able who honestly fears that such is the case. But 
any man who feels that should know that he is up 
against the last barrier between himself and eternal 
doom. 

No passage of Scripture, perhaps, brings out 
with clearer outlines the terrible gravity of sin. 
Sin is an awful thing. It is not a thing to jest 
about or a thing to dare lightly. In itself now, and 
in its tendency hereafter, nothing is so unspeakably 
fatal as sin. I was almost shocked the other day to 
come face to face with this statement, which at first 
I thought could not be true, but which on reflection 
I believe is true, that our Lord's utterances 
throughout the Gospels are not nearly so often 
concerned with forgiveness and goodness as with 
sin and punishment. Not forgiveness and good- 
ness, but sin and punishment, is by far the most 
frequent theme of his teaching. The good tidings 
is not always, nor nearly always, concerned with 
great joy Rather it is concerned with the reve- 
lation of the horror of sin, to save us from which 
Christ faced the sorrow of the garden of 
Gethsemane and the agony of the cross on Calvary. 

I think the most terrible thing about this study; 



288 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

for us must lie in this reflection, that everyone who 
is living in known sin is on the way to that fatal 
climax for which there can be no forgiveness. The 
essence of the sin of these men to whom Christ was 
speaking was that they knew the right and refused 
to accept it, and denied it. And is not that the 
essence of your sin? Are there not unsaved men 
and women who are listening to me now who believe 
that Christ is the divine Saviour and the only 
Saviour of the world ? You believe that the Gospel 
record of Jesus Christ is true. You believe that he 
was born and grew up and went forth to his minis- 
try, as taught in the Gospel. You believe that he 
spake as never man spake; that he suffered the 
agony of Gethsemane and was nailed to the cross as 
an atonement for sin. You believe that he burst 
the bonds of death and, leaving an empty grave, 
ascended in triumph to the right hand of the 
Majesty on high, where he ever lives to intercede for 
you. You believe that men who repent of their sins 
and ask forgiveness of him in faith are pardoned 
and set free from the bondage of their transgres- 
sions. You believe all this, and admit that Christ 
has a rightful claim for your supreme love and 
friendship, and yet, believing it all and admitting 
it all, you go on living as though it were all a 
falsehood. You live as though Christ had never 
lived on earth ; you treat his claims with indifference, 



THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 289 

and day by day the deadly weight of this ingrati- 
tude grows and strengthens its grip upon your 
heart and conscience, making it less and less likely 
with every recurring day that you will ever repent 
of your sins and be saved. 

It is idle for men and women to imagine that they 
can slowly and gradually work themselves into a 
better frame of mind, where they can in an easier 
way become Christians. It is just as great a folly 
to wait for some tide of feeling that will overwhelm 
you with conviction, so that it will be impossible to 
resist the influence that leads toward Christ. There 
is not one place in the Bible where you are urged to 
wait for certain feelings before you repent of your 
sins. Repentance is urged as a duty; the accept- 
ance of Christ and the obedience to Christ are urged 
as duty, and you are to do them because they are 
right. If you wait for such feelings you will never 
be saved. Act upon the light you have, for you 
have light enough. Your judgment is convinced; 
your conscience warns you; follow them and you 
will be saved. 

If I speak to any who fear about themselves that 
they have passed beyond the reach of pardon, then 
I assure you that that very fear is the quickening 
of the Holy Spirit and a pledge that if you will 
immediately repent you will be forgiven. 

A most sinful and profane man at a revival 

19 



290 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

meeting in Evanston, Illinois, several years ago, 
was asked to give himself to Christ. He refused to 
do so, saying, "It would be of no use ; I have com- 
mitted the unpardonable sin." On being asked 
why, then, he had come to the service, he replied, 
"Because I want to see these two children of mine 
saved." His great anxiety for them soon led him 
to pray audibly in their behalf. The pastor said 
to him, "Pray for yourself, man ! If God will hear 
you for others he will hear you for yourself." He 
then began confessing his sins to God, and pleading 
importunately for mercy. Finally the Lord spoke 
peace to his soul and he and his daughters went 
home rejoicing. 

There is hope for any man when he can see his 
sins. When the conscience is blinded so that sin 
does not seem terrible, then the soul is in its greatest 
danger. Christ came to save sinners, and he is able 
to save any sinner who recognizes his sin and turns 
to him with an honest heart. While Paul was 
going on in his wicked way, blind to the horror of 
his sin, there was no hope of his salvation ; but when 
that noonday on the road to Damascus he was 
stricken down and caught a vision of Christ he re- 
garded himself as the chief of sinners. Then he 
began to pray, and he was soon rejoicing in sal- 
vation. It is not your sins that keep you from 
being saved. It is because you do not come to 



THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 291 

Christ. Christ will not refuse you because you are 
a sinner. 

Mr. Moody used to tell the story of a young man 
who had a Christian mother who prayed for him, 
but he was wild and reckless. Finally his mother 
died, and after her death he began to be troubled. 
He thought he would get into new company and 
leave his old companions. So he said he would go 
and join a secret society ; he thought he would join 
the Odd Fellows. But they made inquiry about 
him and they found he was a drunken, worthless 
fellow, so they blackballed him. They would not 
have him. Then he went to the Freemasons; but 
he had nobody to recommend him, so they inquired 
and found there was no good in his record, and they 
too blackballed him. They did not want him. One 
day some one handed him a little notice in the street, 
calling attention to a Christian meeting, and he 
went in. He heard that Christ had come to save 
sinners. He believed him; he took him at his 
word; and, in reporting the matter, he said he 
"came to Christ without a character, and Christ did 
not blackball him." As he received that poor man 
whom nobody else would receive, so he will receive 
you, and pardon your sins, and give you the peace 
of heaven in your soul. 



XXXI 

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angeis 
with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory : and hef ore 
him shall he gathered ell nations: and he shall separate them one 
from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.— Mat- 
thew xxv, 31, 32. 

What a contrast between the first coming and 
the second coming of Jesus Christ to the world! 
First, he came to be born in the manger of Bethle- 
hem ; but when he shall come again it shall be as a 
royal conqueror. True, angels sang his advent to 
the shepherds, and a star guided the wise men to 
his manger crib ; but he wore the guise of a helpless 
babe, and throughout his whole life he was not min- 
istered unto, but himself ministered to the poor 
and the sick and the weak and the outcast. No 
doubt when Christ comes again the same angels that 
sang his praises to the shepherds will be in the 
retinue that attend the triumphant Lord. They 
are as young now as they were then. Men and 
women do not get old in heaven ; there is no sickness 
or pain or weariness or old age, but all its inhab- 
itants have the fervor and enthusiasm of immortal 
youth. But what glorious memories will those 
angels have who sung the "Peace on earth and good 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 293 

will toward men" so long ago, when they come to 
the final wind-up and judgment upon the world's 
affairs. 

It is a striking thing that Jesus Christ, our 
Saviour, is to be our judge. We are sure it will be 
just judgment. Christ never did an unjust thing. 
During the years of his earthly life his bitterest 
enemies never claimed that he was unjust. He 
knows all our case. He has watched over our entire 
career. We may be certain that there will be no 
prejudice against us, and no false testimony. If 
our lives are right and are pleasing to him we are 
sure of an abundant acquittal and welcome into 
heaven. 

We must be sure, however, that they are right, 
for not one has ever spoken such words of sternness 
about sin as Jesus Christ. It was Christ who said 
to evil men of his time : "Ye are of your father the 
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He 
was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not 
in the truth, because there is no truth in him. 
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: 
for he is a liar, and the father of it." It was Christ 
that said: "He that believeth on him is not con- 
demned: but he that believeth not is condemned 
already, because he hath not believed in the name of 
the only begotten Son of God." It was Christ 
that said : "The light of the body is the eye : there- 



294 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

fore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also 
is full of light ; but when thine eye is evil, thy body 
also is full of darkness." It was Christ who told 
the story of the rich man whose farm produced so 
abundantly, and who in the midst of his rich crops 
forgot the God who gave them, and said : "This will 
I do : I will pull down my barns, and build greater ; 
and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 
And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much 
goods laid up for many years ; take thine ease, eat, 
drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, 
Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of 
thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou 
hath provideth? So is he that layeth up treasure 
for himself, and is not rich toward God." I bring 
forward these sayings of Christ that we may have 
clearly before us what Christ thinks about sin. 
For we may be very sure that he who said to Nico- 
demus, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a 
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God," will be the very same when he sits upon the 
throne of judgment and we stand before him to give 
our account. He is "the same yesterday, and to- 
day, and forever." 

It is surely the part of wisdom for us to honestly 
face this question of the judgment. It is idle and 
foolish for us to put it aside because it disturbs us 
and makes us gloomy. The Scripture says, "It is 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT £95 

appointed unto man once to die, but after this the 
judgment." We cannot escape the judgment any 
more than we can escape death, and our only wise 
treatment of the subject is to get ready for it, and 
so fit ourselves that we shall not fear to meet our 
Saviour there. 

This picture of the judgment suggests to us the 
tremendous importance of our individuality. At 
the judgment day every man must stand on his own 
foundation. A righteous wife will not be able to 
carry a wicked husband out of the throng on the 
left hand to those on the right. A holy mother 
will not be able to atone for the misdoings of a 
prodigal son. Each one standing alone before the 
great white throne must be judged alone by his 
own personality. We get so in the habit of judg- 
ing ourselves in crowds; we think of ourselves as 
belonging to a club, or a circle, or a community, and 
so evade the keen sense of responsibility. Even 
when I preach to you the most heart-searching 
truths you evade the sharp probe of the truth by 
considering that there are others in the same posi- 
tion with you. You somehow feel that that lessens 
your personal responsibility. But at the judgment 
there will be no possibility of thrusting responsi- 
bility aside in that way. Each one will stand on his 
own personality and must answer to his own deeds. 
In all the great events of life we are alone. In all 



296 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

the great solemn decisions of life, in our death, and 
in our judgment we are alone with God. 

I want to call your attention to the fact that in 
the solemn and awful separations that shall take 
place at the judgment the basis on which they shall 
take place is with reference to the personal atti- 
tude of each one toward Christ. Listen to the word 
of Jesus to the righteous who are gathered on his 
right hand: "Then shall the King say unto them 
on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, 
and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave 
me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 
naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye visited 
me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then 
shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when 
saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, 
and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a 
stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed 
thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and 
came unto thee? And the King shall answer and 
say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch 
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me." 

I am sure there is a great deal of false hope 
built upon that wonderful declaration of Christ. 
Men and women who have been disobeying Christ 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 397 

all their lives, who have never confessed him, and 
who have lived utterly out of harmony with his 
spirit, are lulling themselves to sleep in self-com- 
placency, imagining that some work of charity 
they have done will open the doors of heaven at 
last. It is of such that Christ says he will say in 
that day, "I never knew you." It was of just such 
cases as that that Paul was thinking when he said, 
"If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if 
I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it 
profiteth me nothing." If we obey the Lord Jesus 
Christ and give him our hearts in earnest and loving 
devotion, then every cup of cold water which we give 
in his name shall have its reward. Our good works 
toward our fellow-men get their value from our 
attitude toward Christ. If we love Christ and do 
what we do for them in loving appreciation of his 
great love for us and of their brotherhood to Christ, 
then, indeed, Christ receives each kindly act as 
though it were done for himself. But let us not 
forget that first of all we must be right with Christ. 
Until we have given our hearts to him, until we have 
obeyed him by an open discipleship, we are still in 
our sins, unforgiven, and the condemnation of the 
broken law of God is hanging over our heads. 

The personality of the judgment comes out also 
in the sad and terrible words which Jesus utters to 
those on the left : "Then shall he say also unto them 



298 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
angels : for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no 
meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink : I was 
a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye 
clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited 
me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, 
Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or 
a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did 
not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer 
them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch 
as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye 
did it not to me. And these shall go away into ever- 
lasting punishment: but the righteous into life 
eternal." 

No more momentous words than those are printed 
in any language. And I call upon you again to 
note that this whole question of the final judgment, 
according to Christ himself, hinges on our personal 
attitude toward him. Christian goodness begins 
first in loyalty to Christ. We were lost in sin, 
without hope, and Christ ransomed us through his 
own blood on the cross, and we have no standing 
before God until we accept the conditions of that 
ransom and are pardoned through the atonement 
Christ made for us. We have broken God's law, 
and not one man or woman among us will be able 
to come up before the judgment at last and say, 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 299 

"I have a right to go into heaven, because I have 
never sinned." Not one of us will get in in that 
way. Our one hope there will be that our sins have 
been blotted out through the atoning blood of the 
Christ who shall sit on the great white throne to 
judge us. If we have accepted Christ, and given 
him our love and our confession, we shall have 
nothing to fear. For the Judge on the throne will 
be our friend, and he will keep his word with us, and 
publicly confess us before his Father and the holy 
angels. But if we have gone through life reject- 
ing him, and refusing all his invitations of love, 
then we shall stand speechless and in despair before 
the judgment throne, and hear those awful words, 
"Depart from me." 

But I thank God that the judgment day has not 
yet come, and that this is the day of mercy and of 
grace, and every one of you may, if you will, make 
your peace with God through the all-sufficient 
atonement of Jesus Christ, so that all fear of death 
and the judgment shall be taken out of your hearts. 
My friends, do not be storing up wrath against the 
day of wrath through your carelessness and your 
sin. One of the terrible things about sin is that we 
not only hurt ourselves, but that every disobedience 
to God tends to hurt others who are often very near 
and dear to us. I think the most terrible agony I 
have ever witnessed has been that of the fathers or 



300 THE HEALING OF SOULS 

mothers who felt that their own lack of faithfulness 
to God had been the ruin of a loved child. 

I never shall forget two stories which I once heard 
Mr. Moody tell. One was the story of a father 
who lived on the Mississippi River. He was a man 
of great wealth, yet he would have freely given it 
all could he have brought back his eldest boy from 
his early grave. One day that boy had been borne 
home unconscious. They did everything that man 
could do to restore him, but in vain. "He must 
die," said the doctor. 

"But, doctor," said the agonized father, "can 
you do nothing to bring him to consciousness even 
for a moment?" 

"That may be," said the doctor; "but he can 
never live." 

Time passed, and after a terrible suspense the 
father's wish was gratified. "My son," he whis- 
pered, "the doctor tells me you are dying." 

"Well," said the boy, "you have never prayed 
for me, father; won't you pray for my lost soul 
now?" 

The father wept. It was true he had never 
prayed. He was a stranger to God. And in a 
little while that soul, unprayed for, passed into its 
dark eternity. 

My friends, are any of you storing up anguish 
like that by your failure to do your duty to some 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 301 

who are being influenced by you to forget God and 
lose their own souls ? 

This was the other story : A father had a lovely 
boy, and one day he came home to find him at the 
gates of death. "A great change has come over 
our boy," said the weeping mother. "He has only 
been a little ill before, but it seems now as if he were 
dying fast." The father went into the room and 
placed his hand on the forehead of his darling boy. 
He could see that the boy was dying. He could 
feel the cold damp of death. 

"My son, do you know you are dying?" 

"No; am I?" 

"Yes ; you are dying." 

"And shall I die to-day?" 

"Yes, my boy, you cannot live till night." 

"Well, then, I shall be with Jesus to-night, won't 
I, father?" 

"Yes, my son, you will spend to-night with the 
Saviour." 

As he turned away the boy saw the tears trickling 
over his father's cheeks. 

"Don't weep for me, father," he said; "when I 
get to heaven I will go straight to Jesus, and tell 
him that ever since I can remember you have tried 
to lead me to him." 

Do you suppose the wealth of worlds would take 



THE HEALING OF SOULS 

the memory of those words of his dying boy out of 
that father's heart? 

Let us not miss the one great prize ! Life is but 
a short race at best, and no possible success in this 
world can for one moment repay us for the loss of 
heaven and everlasting life. Make sure of your 
title to heaven this very hour ! 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

; WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVAT.ON 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



